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AND THB

Money Question in Canada

AND

SOME CONSIDERATIONS ARISING THEREFROM.

A HUSBANDMAN.

PRICE, 25 CENTS.

CAN HE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS.

©oronto :

THE HUNTER, ROSE CO., Ltd.
1897.

■1

mmr^nr- tfttif"^mmmmt

>€6

MONKY

AND

THE MONEY QUESTION IN CANADA

AND

SOME CONSIDERATIONS ARISING THEREFROM.

A HUSBANDMAN.

PRICE, 25 CENTS.

CAN BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS.

Toronto :

The hunter, ROSE CO., Ltd.
1897.

/ ! ;

Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thou-
sand eight hundred and ninety-seven, by Robert Douglas, at the
Department of Agriculture.

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PREFATORY REMARKS,

Tiiis pamphlet is dedicated by the author to his fel-
low-Canadians everywhere as a New Year greeting, with
the expectation that it may a.«sist at least some who
liitherto may have given littie serious consideration and
have not very clear views of the Money Question, and
induce others who may have given much thought to it,
but who still, through old associations, cling to gold as
the best or proper standard of money, to consider the
whole question in all its phases, free and unabiased as
far as possible by other men's opinions, or predilections,
and so arrive at conclusions and convictions clear and
satisfactory to themselves, as the result of their own en-
quiry. After, and as a result of, such consideration and
enquiry, the author is convinced beyond a perad venture
that the Money Question is the most important, easily put
riofht, and uroent for immediate solution at this time on
this continent, and that b}' a proper standard of money,
a sound money system, and sound principles of lending
and borrowing upon real estate, that Canada, by wise and
prudent legislation, can be delivered I'rom her crushing
load of national and individual mortgages in a marvel-
lously short time and the debts incidentally be turned
into a good bond to bind us Canadians together.

There is no manner of doubt but that a perfectly safe
national money system can be framed and worked with-

Prefatory Remarks.

)

out ^'oUl having anything to do with it, and as little doubt
that North America is on the eve of some radical change
in the iiianncr of doing things. If a bold forward step
is not taken on the right lines the drift will still be down-
wards on the wrong ones. The United States and Can-
ada have been in many respects like two railway trains
on a down grade for thirty years back or more. Both
countries must lay in a new leaf and reverse the grade ^
by, first of all, acknowledging God more than they have'
done in their legislation. They must cast otf the moral
turpitude hanging like an incubus, which has been en-
gendeied by disobeying Divine commands about a Sab-
bath dav's rest from toil, unjust tariH" abominations,
drawing national revenue from blood-money through .--A (
licenses of Meieterious and intoxicating dri!d<s, and the '';

gold incubus in our money system. The first three are
inexcusable, the latter least creditable to our intelligence. i

The author has (and who has not?) been giieved tliese
many years back at -the time worse than wasted by
paityism and taritf' discussion abominations, kee[)ing '
back from consideration many most important matters
still to be righted, such as a higher st:-mdard of teachers
to man the Public Schools ot the various provinces, cut-
ting down our governinent machinery, prohibition in some
good shape, government management of railwa3's, bank-
ruptcy and sanitary regulations, municipal management
of city franchises, whereby the load of municipal taxa-
tion could be almost annihilated, as is done in Glasgow.

I appeal with much confidence to ray fellow-Canadians,
and especially to " the powers that be " and the press,
to consider this Money Question carefully and courage- j

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Prefatory Remarl'H. 5

ously, so that Canada may no longer be cursed by dear
and scarce money. There is neither dearne.ss nor scarcity,
but fulness, even to overflowing, of the good things of
this life. Why, oh why, should there be a famine of a
mere medium to purchase the good things ?

1st January, 1897.

■ f

MONEY AND THE MONEY ftUESTION

IN CANADA.

-•-♦-•-

To tliose who have not clear views on the Money
Question, the many divergent views, opinions, and spec-
ulative theoricH about sound money, debased currency,
appreciation and depreciation of gold, silver, wheat, and
other things must be perplexing indeed. Why cannot
solid ground and the truth be found and the facts ascer-
tained to a demonstration as well as about other every-
day matters ?

It is not creditable to our intelligence that there should
be so much doubt and perplexity as evidently prevail.
There cannot be a doubt but the darkness tliat pervades
the minds of so many intelligent and wise men arises
from the almost universal belief in a fallacy — viz., that
gold is the best or right standard of money. If men be-
lieve and build upon a fallacy, the structure will be
faulty ; the more and longer discussed, the greater the
perplexity and the longer in coming to the truth, the
only solid ground. Build well upon a true foundation,
and the structure will be good, beautiful and excellent in
every way.

Is it not as clear as noonday that gold and silver met-
als, as well as other things, even money itself, are alike

-—rrz::;:^'

8 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

subject to the law of supply and demand, or demand and
supply, for in some circumstances the one precedes the
other, which regulates the market value ? Is not the
market value just the intrinsic value? Each metal or
material has its own intrinsic value, caused by the adap-
tation to man's needs. Why, then, all this ado about
appreciation and depreciation ? Gold and silver metals
are more adapted for ornamental, fine, delicate work
because of their qualities — viz., cleanness, beauty, duc-
tility, etc. ; iron, in its various conditions, and other un-
clean metals are more adapted for useful, strong^ work.
Paper is more adapted for money purposes than metals
because of its qualities of being convenient, clieap, and
abundant availability of supply. These are all essential.
It is more adaptable to all our needs for money purposes,
so much so that even with our foolish metal standard it
is of necessity used in its various forms for the great
bulk of commerce. Metal money is most convenient for
fractions only, and even then often not so convenient as
25 and 50 cent bills. These being settled facts are sug-
gestive of many questions such as the following :

1st. Is it not so that what we call money, in whatever
form, is simply a medium and nothing more for exchang-
ing goods and products of all kinds in a permanent form
that will buy and sell itself, it being all things in one ?

2nd. Is it not so that the cheaper and more convenient
the better ?

3rd. Is it not so that the dearer and more inconven-
ient the worse ?

4th. Is it not wisdom, and consequently right, to use
the better and more convenient, and folly and conse-
quently wrong to use the worse ?

V .-

'V J

Money and the Money Question in Canada.

5th. Are not gold and silver the dearest mediums, and
paper the cheapest, and, in fact, the only practicable one,
nowadays ? Is it not, then, a moral question — a ques-
tion of Yicrht and wrong ?

6th. Does not a costly medium add all its cost to the
articles bought and sold in some shape or other ? It
might be difficult to locate the cost exactly.

7th. Is it not so that a piece of gold metal which costs
one dollar if owned and stamped by gov<M'nment costs one
dollar, plus the coining and stamping, and a piece of paper
which we may say costs nothing if owned and stamped
by government for many purposes costs only the price of
the paper, plus the printing and stamping, and is virtu-
ally 100 times cheaper if all in one dollar bills, but if in
larger denominations all the cheaper ? And what does
this mean and involve ? Think this out, ye wise men ;
tell us what the results and consequences are of adding
100 per cent, to the cost of the medium. I presume it
is a big question, far-reaching, and pregnant with momen-
tous consequences. Is this not a key to a Vanderbilt
with his $40,000,000 and the hard-working farmer,
labourer, or mechanic, all of whom are as honest and in-
dustrious and doing more good to the world by produc-
ing the material for the fooil, clothing, shelter, and the
real creators of the money as well ? These after 60 or
70 years of hard, honest toil, perhaps not worth $400, or
$40, all told, and a yearly saving of not one dollar.
Vanderbilt, with $40,000,000 invested at even 3 per
cent., would have a yearly saving of $1, '200,000. Is not
this dear money and costly money-standard one of the
devil's delusions by which the Christian world has been
deceived for more than one thousand years ?

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10 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

8th. Is not the standard or value of money, whether
the material be metal or paper, its face value to buy and
sell, and when deposited with the ijovernment which
made and issued it, its interest value when deposited or
loaned by government ? This, we may say, is its real
national standard to measure its value by.

9th. Is not any standard or standards other than its
face and interest standard or value a mischievous fic-
tion ? What other standard is needed or possible ?

10th, Is it not 80 that government only should issue
and make legal all the nation's current money, guaran-
tee its face value, and its interest when deposited with
and issued by government ? What other guarantee or
promise is needed ? No other.

11th. Is it not so that when government receives
money on deposit from citizens it should loan it again to
other citizens if they wish to borrow it, by giving the
best possible security ?

12th. Is there any better security anywhere than im-
proved productive farms owned and occupied by indus-
trious, honest, law-abiding families, the bulwarks of a
nation — a wall of peact,, and " of fire," if need be ?

13th. Would not unlimited coinage by government
and unlimited printing of money be unsound economics,
highly dangerous and most injurious ?

14th. Is not unlimited free coinage of gold unjust by
protecting gold-producers at the national expense, highly
dangerous and fraught with evil consequences ?

15th. If the United States and Canada ceased borrow-
ing from outside, and used paper money only, based upon
labour and not upon gold, would not the demand for

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Money and the Money Question in Canada. 11

goltl 1)0 inucli lessened, and, as a consequence, be more
plentiful and the price likely to decline?

16th. Is not the essential thing about money its se-
curity, stability under all circumstances, and ability as a
national thing to purchase and sell any and every com-
modity at the market price ?

I7th. Is it not essential and sound economics when
governments coin or print mouey that the limit be well
within the security in order to be safe, not to make more
than 50 per cent, of the market value of the security ?

18th. Is it not unsound economics, unproti table and
hazardous, for citizens to mortgage real estate to aliens,
and consequeni-ly sound economics, profitable and safe, to
mortgage to their own government, which represents the
citizens, and who would receive the annual interest and
in case of default, the real estate ?

19th. Is not borrowing upon improved productive
farms a perfectly legitimate transaction between borrower
and lender, each of whom should be on equal terms, and
both alike made sure ?

20th. If a citizen, owner of productive real estate,
borrow on mortgnge from his own government, say to
half the market value, why should he, as a matter of
right, pay any interest to the State, or anything further
than the expense of printing the money, if he pays all
taxes directly and executes all the obligations of a good
citizen ? It is virtually his own money he is borrow-
ing-

21st. Does not the preventing of citizen owners of real

estate, say improved productive farms, from borrowing
from their own government paper money on the security

12 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

A.;

til

of their farms — the concrete Jesuits of their labour lock-
ing up the capital of the citizen owners ?

22nd. Does not our present systeui of periiiittin<,^ or
virtually forcing them to borrow from aliens on the gold
standard basis unlock the door to aliens and rob the
citizen and the State ? Consequently, suicidal poUcy.

Many more questions might be asked, but enough
meantime. "Debased currency" is an expression fre-
quently used in discussing the money question. I under-
stand those who use the term mean that to adopt silver
as a standard of money for all amounts at the ratio oflG
to 1, or fiaper without a gold foundation, would be de-
based currency. It seems to me the expression betrays
a misapprehension of facts and is not strictly correct.
If there were no distinction between the functions of
national and international money, and silver not stand-
ard money for all amounts, and gold the only standard,
then the expression would be correct; but there is no
more necessary connection between national and inter-
national money than between national and international
goods, further than it is convenient in exchanging goods.
Nations could exchange goods without money if exports
and imports were equal, or even if otherwise. Imports
are now paid by exports, and vice versa, balances only
are paid with money. Under present circumstances gold
answers tolerabl}' well, but international or empire paper
money would answer much better. It would be much cheap-
er and save the expense and risk of hauling and transship-
ping gold. If the ship was burnt or lost the paper money
need not be lost ; not so with gold. The main function
of international money is to pay balances ; of national to

mada.
labour lock-

iniiitting or
on the gold
nd rob the
al poUcy.
but enough
ression fre-
h 1 under-
idopt silver
s ratio of 16
ould be de-
ion betrays
5tly correct,
unctions of
not stand-
" standard,
there is no
and inter-
ternational
^ing goods,
if exports
Imports
ances only
lances gold
pire paper
uch cheap-
transship -
^er money
I function
ational to

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 13

pay in exchanging goods. Gold is not the onlj'- standard
money even in gold standard countries, neither is it in
reality the standard of money. The standard of money
and standard money are two distinct and different
things. Standard mone}'^ is the nation's legalized money,
no matter what the material may be, gold, silver, copper,
or paper ; they are all staridard money — silver and copper
to limited amounts, paper unlimited. All alike are guar-
anteed their face value ; none of them, therefore, are
debased money. The least valuable material, I believe,
makes the most valuable and best money. We may call
gold rich money, or the rich man's money, but a dollar's
worth of silver or copper coins will bu}'^ or sell as much
as a gold dollar, and so will a paper dollar. They are all
equally good, honest money, none of them debased, but
not necessarily all equally sound money. Gold is a high
fictitious standard. We may call a man rich whose
money is all in gold, a high standard man ; and a man
poor whose money is all in silver or copper, a low stand-
ard man, or "debased;" but we know the standard of the
man is his character for honesty. So it is with his
money ; it is its character for honesty. The rich man's
gay clothing does not exalt his character one iota ; it is
more likely to affect it adversely by making him proud
and debase the man. The poor man's homespun does not
debase his character one iota ; it is more likely to make
him feel humble and exalt the real man. If silver is
debased money in comparison with gold, what might be
said of paper, which in reality is 99 times cheaper than
any metal, if in one dollar bills, and many times more so
if in larger denominations ? But it is infinitely more con-

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14 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

venient. If so much cheaper and convenient then a moral
question arises, Js it right or wrong, wise or foolish, to
use the most costly and inconvenient article when the
cheapest, most convenient and most efficient is available,
and would be such a blessing to multitudes ? Govern-
ments cannot make legal dollar coins for less than 100
cents per dolhir, but they can and do make paper legal
dollar bills for less than one cent per dollar. To make a
ten, a hundred, or a thousand- dollar bill costs no more
than a one; thr only question is its security. Qui- paper
money is said t j rest upon gold in order to be safe and not
" debased." Gold is said to rest on itself. Custom says it
has an intrinsic value as money. Is this affirmation and
custom warranted by facts ? Verily no. Where and
how do governments get the gold it rests upon which
they hold as reserves to redeem their notes ? This, I un-
derstand, is how the Canadian Government gets it. The
Treasury Board issues debentures to anv who will furnish
gold foi- tiiem, either coin or bullion. So that our gold
redemption money, as a matter of fact, is founded upon
paper, and not the best of paper at that. The people
might repudiate their government's action for borrowing
without specific authority. I presume such authority
was never asked.

The almost universal belief that our money system is
founded on gold seems to the writer notwarianted by facts,
and rests upon a fallacy ; inasnmch as it is clear to a de-
monstration that our gold, upon which our money system
is founded, is not based upon gold, but upon paper promises,
and that our whole money system needs to bo overhauled
and put upon its sure foundation of truth, which is laid

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inada.

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 15

:hen a moral
or ioolish, to
e when the
is available,
5 ? Govern-
ess than 100

paper legal

To make a
its no more

Qui' [)aper
safe and not
stom says it
iination and

Where and
upon which

This, I un-
lets it. The
will furnish
lat our gold
unded upon

The people

borrowing
1 authority

y system is
ted by facts,
^ar to a de-
ney system
sr promises,
overhauled
dch is laid

in nature, viz., the foundation of labour, or the products
of labour in the concrete form, employed in producing
the necessities and conveniences of life, such as food,
clothing and shelter materials, and not on materials
whose natural functions are to assist in constructing
delicate instruments, and to adorn and beautify men's
persons and works.

In considering the money question we recognize the
close relationship it has to the Laud Question, and the
I. fact that while it belongs to the possessor of it for the
/ time being, if honestly got, it belongs essentially to God
I because we belong to Him ; " We are not our own."-

Money is a most useful thing ; it answereth all things,
we are told, and is a most intei-esting and instructive
study. Few seem to understand money or the money
question, or give it much thought further than how to
acquire it, many for their good and many to their hurt,
It is blessed to get money aright, and more blessed to
give aright, whether got rightly or wrongly.

What is money ? What is its standard ? What ma-
terial should it be made of, metal or paper ? Who creates
or makes it, and how ? Should it be cheap or dear, and
how cheap or dear ? Can it be abundant and cheap ?
How long will it last ? Who should make it legal and
issue it ? What is its right use and abuse ? Who should
borrow it, and on what conditions ? What is interest,
and what is usury ? Some disadvantages and dar>gers
of metal money, and some advantages and safety of
paper money ; International money. A formidable dozen
of queries, but more might be asked. Let us take them
in their order.

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16 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

First, What is Money ? Money is wealth, wealth is hy
labour ; therefore Labour is money. Money is the pro-
duct of the community's labour. The community's
labour beini^ so manifold, almost universal, one thing ?
there must be, for convenience sake, in civilized countries
to represent tlio labours. Money is the representative
medium, the one thinfi^ used in exchanging any and all
products of labour. It is, therefore, simply a medium,
and nothing more. There are many things the product
of labour which are not put into the money medium, but
which can be if men choose.

In an important sense money is like God's first great
gift to man, viz., the earth, made by Him, but through
man's instrumentality. By virtue of its nature it is not
given free to man or to the nation, but it is loaned to
men and to the nation at large for interest — a natural
obligation. The earth is loaned to man with a natural,
national and individual obligation upon it, as well as for
the talents God has given to them. It also bears a like-
ness to His fiist gift in that it is almost universal, omni-
present and omnipotent. Everybody needs it, and has it,
to some extent, in order to enjoy life. With it men can
accomplish all possibilities — girdle the earth and sea with
means of communication, remove mountains, change the
flow of oceans, which thev will do to some extent when
they cut across Panama. And who knows what that
may result in ? It might affect the temperature of the
Gulf Stream; and what then?

They can annihilate space, and photo, the unseen.
Where and what may be the limit of this latest discov-
ery ?

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 17

Second, What is its Standard? What is the staiiflard
of anything ? It is something fixed by common consent
and established by national authority, by which articles
are to be weighed, measured, bought, sold, and valued.
For grains we have a sort of double standard measure or
capacity and weight combined ; the measure is the real
standard, the weight only indicates the quality of the
article measured ; the cloth standard lineal measure only
so many inches to the foot or yard, and so on. The na-
tion itself has a standard, viz., its character — its integrity,
worth, value in the estimation of its Maker, God. The
standard of money is its character, its intrinsic worth, its
value in the estimation of its maker — man ; its capacity
to buy and sell any and every commodity. Being only
a medium, but representing all labour, active and passive,
it must have a double standard, one suited to each state,
active and passive. Its active standard is its face value
or capacity to buy and sell ; a dollar must be and is a
dollar all the time and in all places of the country to
which it belongs. Its passive standard is the interest it
is worth — its value when deposited with the government,
lying passive, while thus at rest, as far as the depositor
or owner is concerned. Its active standard being of
necessity fixed and made legal by government, its passive
standard must of necessity also be fixed and made legal
by government ; its real standard being that by wdiich
it will buy and sell itself, it being all things in one Gold
metal is no more the standard of money than the com-
modities weighed and measured are the standards of the
commodities weighed and measured. When used as a
medium, it has, like all other mediums, its standard face
B

18 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

value, but not because it is gold. Any and every medium
must have that. All materials that may be used for a
money medium fluctuate according to the universal law
of supply and demand, but the standard not one iota
until changed by statute. This standard must be fixed
and unchangeable, except by statute, like other standards,
and at the most convenient point compatible with the
existing circumstances of the labour necussary to |)roduce
the money. Productive farm real estate is the most real,
tangil)le, enduring result of labour, because so necessary
for human existence, and, consequently, the safest, the
best and soundest foundation for money that we know
of. There is nothing to equal it as a security. Under
present circumstances two per cent, may be the highest
point ; it seems so in Britain and also in Canada. At
present, prices of farm |)roducts and necessary expense
incurred, money invested in farming operations, either in
Canada or Britain, is not worth more than two per cent.
And if prices of farm products should get lower, which
they are more likely to do than to rise, one per cent, will
then be thought high enough. The facilities for produc-
ing, and the means of communication, are so great, and
as they increase, cheaper food and cheaper shelter will
be the result. Tliese two things should be hailed with
great delight as national and world-wide blessings.

Third. What Material should it he made of, Metal or
Paper ? A short answer would be whichever was found
by experience to be cheapest, raost convenient, enough
available, most enduring, and least liable to wear out or
be lost or destroyed by fire. At present, of necessity, the
great bulk of money used in civilized countries is paper

Money and the Moneij Question in Canada. 19

of various kinds and degrees of security, with a small
proportion only of gold, silver, copper coins and bullion.
As a rule the goM metal is (erroneously) called the stan-
dard of money, and that by which the paper is regulated.
It is the foundation of, or security for, the paper ; the
paper is redeemable in gold only if demanded, or it is not
considered sound ])aper. If it has no gold to redeem it,
it is called rag money or fiat money. If it has real estate
to redeem it I call it real estate money or sound money,
the soundest possible.

There is a gross and almost univeisal misconception
on this point. ' A money system built or founded upon
gold is a baseless, costly and dangerous system. The
fact that so few demand gold speaks volumes for the in-
trinsic value of the paper money of Canada. If there
were doubts about the paper, either in Bi itain or Canada,
men would soon demand the gold and not part with it.
If they had the gold, and the paper not good, they would
be in a dilemma, business would be paralyzed, because
the gold would be so costly, inconvenient, and, above all,
deficient in quantity. What is it that gives backbone to
the paper monej^ of the Scotch and Canadian banks but
the limited and unlimited liability of the bank share-
holders, coupled with integrity of character and good
business management. Take away this liability, respon-
sibility, no matter how good the management, what
would the paper be worth ? Only a few cents on the
dollar or the sovereign, as the case might be, just in pro-
portion to the amount of gold held to redeem it. Gold
has no intrinsic value as a money medium. Take away,
or abolish altogether, the paper money, and use only gold

20 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

money, see what a dilemma; business would stop until
some other mcdiuni was found. And what medium so
l^ood in every lesjiect could be found as paper? Take
away the i,'old altogether and use paper, would tlie people
be in a dilemnui, or business stop ? Vei'ily, no ; they
have paper money in use and it works admirably ; why,
of course, they would just continue to use it. And if the
security upon wliich it now rests was not quite sufficient
common sense would say make it sufficient. The secur-
ity the Clmadian banks now give is most substantial, the
Itest security of any banking system in existence that 1
know of. It can be made [)erfectly ample, if it is not so
now, without any gold reserve. The gold reserve is
simply an expen.se. The large rest the banks have is a
substantial security. We have no Canadian gold money
and we don't f(icl the want of it, and we don't need it.
It is too costly for us poor Canucks. Certainly we are
vciy poor as far as gold goes, but we are not poor in pro-
portion to our population as far as labour and real estate
go, that upon which sound money rests ; neither are we
very ])oor, as far as paper money goes, as a nation ; but
our trouble is the real estate and the paper money are
rapidly slipping out of the hands of the creators of both
and into the hands of those who did not in any sense
create them, through the application of unsound principles
in our money and money-borrowing systems.

Men are so accustomed and attached to the gold money
idea it is like a second nature, and almost impossible to
convince many that it is mischievous misconception, or
that in place of increasing our wealth it decreases it by
using it for money and making it the money standard,

Money and the Money QucMion in Camuht. 21

or that gold is not money further than a mediiiin. Any-
thinfj will do for a medium, provified thero is enough of
it convenient and cheap, and proper security bcliind it.
The security is the essential thing. Would that the <]fold
irlea, for it is nothinj^r else, were buried a thousand
fathoms deep, even beyond the reach of cathode rays.

Gold and silver are beautiful, clean metals, not liable to
rust or corrode, like iron and C(^pper, but their use is more
for ornament and adornment, and not to compare in point
of usefulness to iron and other unclean metals, which a
beneficent Creator has made the more abundant. Our
paper money is of various kinds ami degrees of security,
Dominion notes, chartered bank notes. Merchants' paper
of all kinds, debentures, post-office orders and railway
tickets are all paper and pasteboard money, each for their
own purpose. The latter four are far more suitable for
their purposes than the current money ; tliey are simply
a necessity for convenience sake. Far more business is
now transacted by them than by Dominion and bank
notes. There are some serious and fatal objections to
gold money, such as cost, inconvenience, and unavailability
of supply, which will ha considered under the disadvan-
tages.

Fourth, Who Creates Money and How ? The man who
labours. A man's labour is his wealth. New money is
made thus : By labour employed in jjioducing some new
article or thing out of the ground, forest, or mine, or by
skill in making some new article or thing, and which ai-e
sold over what the producer or manufacturer consumes
or uses directly. If no money medium was in exi.stence,
the days of barter being past, w^hat could we do with our

mmtm

TTT

•>i

22 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

productions ? Other people want them. We could take
them to the government nnd deposit them; that merely
would do us no good. The government would say, " We
cannot do anything with your products." The producers
could say, " Give the nation a legal tender medium to buy
and sell with." The government did so by instituting
and issuing paper money, and made it legal tender and
on a thoroughly sound basis. The producers could then
sell their products to those who needed them, and deposit
as much as they did not need with the government, and
get, say, 2 per cent, for it, the government loaning it out
again to those who could give real estate security, so as
to be able to pay depositors their interest. This is new
money and how it is made and put into circulation.
Labour is money, money represents labour. The labour-
ing man creates money by labouring; the more productive
his labour and the less he consumes the more money he
makes. Idle money does not increase, hence he lends it
to others for his own good, and, in doing so, for the good
of others who can borrow it to advantage. In this opera-
tion gold is not a necessity in any sense. It is only an
expense. What could governments buy gold with for a
medium ?

Fifth, Should money he cJicap or dear, and how cheap?
Oiieap money would be an untold blessing to all ex-
cept those who live by lending it. The latter class I will
apeak of afterwards. The cheaj)er the better, because it
is only the medium we have to buy and sell our products
with. A dear medium is wasteful, hurtful and foolish in
the extreme. Cheap money is the one thing needful
alike to the farmer, manufacture/, merchant and labourer;

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 23

and who so well entitled to cheap money as the two for-
mer, who are essentially the creators of it, they who sup-
ply the material of all kinds for merchants, labourersi
bankers and others ? Dear money is ruinoup The rate
of interest is coming down all over because producers
have been paying too high interest, they are getting
too poor to pay so much, and it will come down yet
further, in spite of men's foolish laws or customs, to up-
hold high interest and the stupid gold standard. Why,
cheap gold and cheap silver would be an untold blessing
as well as cheap iron to all except miners and speculators,
who sell them mostly for money purposes. G-overnments
make them artificially dear, to the hurt of all but these
two classes. It is protection in gold and silver, it favours
the few at the expense of the many. The national stand-
ard of money will come down to nature's point, whatever
that may be, or else grievous wrong will be done. If the
farmers and manufacturers of Canada had cheap money,
say at 2 per cent , which they are fully entitled to consid-
ering the security they give, and free commerce they could
compete successfully with the world and be prosperous.
It is the high interest with protection added that has
ruined so many, is fast ruining more, and will ruin many
more unless we cease them both. The sooner we have
cheap money, free trade in money, and free trade in
goods, the better. These are the two pressing reforms
urgently called for at this time.

Sixth. Can Money he abundant and cheap t It can
and should be both. Money being the result of labour,
if there is much labour in the country there will be much
money in some shape. Speaking generally, we Cana-

'' i

HJUBMil"'

aenr.:

24 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

diyns are an industrious and not an extravagant people.
At present it is not so much the lack of money in the
country that is our trouble. The trouble is, it is in the
wrong hands, not in the possession of those who need it
most, viz., the creators of it, but of the money lenders,
money changers, loan companies, bankers, and a few
made enormously rich b}'' protection, who have more than
they can use profitably, and they will not lend it at such
rates as the producers or creators of it can afford to pay
for it. They will rather keep some of it idle; they can
afford to do so by getting large interest for what they do
loan.

There are several ways by which money could be
abundant and cheap. We would have had much more
money in Canada to-day than we have but for the vast
amount annually sent to Britain in the shape of interest,
by our foolish system of borrowing from outside. For
many long years we have been sending out of the coun-
try, never to retuin, without having to pay for it again,
possibly 820,000,000 or more annually. It would be in-
teresting to know how much since Confederation in 1807.
I trust Sir Richard Cartwright will tell us some day when
he hos time. One way is to collect all the idle monev in
the country that is yielding no interest and deposit it
witli the government, and tlie government lend it out
again on real estate only at 2 {)er cent., and give deposit-
ors the same interest minus the expense. How much
idle money there may be we do not know, but doubtless
a large sum. The chartered banks all the time have a
large deposit upon which the}^ pay no interest, generally
about 865,000,000 or more, nowadays ; part of this might

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 25

1 be employed. What the government does with the
money deposited in the savings department I don't know,
but it should be loaned by government on real estate
only as a security to tlie depositors. If this part of our
national book-keeping was properly attended to, quite a
large sum would be available.

A second way to increase the abundance. Suppose
that of our 1,000,000 families in the Dominion even half
of them, viz., 500,000 saved yearly, on an average, after
all expenses, $200 each, and deposited it with the gov-
ernment at 2 per cent., it would be $100,000,000 annually
added to the national wealth or curiency this loaned
out by government at 2 per cent on leal estate. The
depositors would receive $2,000,000 for interest yearly
amongst them, and the borrowers money at 2 per cent.
What a boon to them and to the country ; their real estate
would soon be more productive ; farmers could then aflbrd
to improve their farms. As matters are at present, im-
provements are sadly retarded. This going on for a
length of time, as it would do, and at an increased ratio,
as it would under cheap money, what an accumulation of
wealth there would be in a few years ; the older the coun-
try got it would get the richer, there would soon be abun-
dance of clieap money, and if Dominion taxes were paid
direct liow things would boom without bursting. Cheap
money. It would be, next to cheap land, the bottom bed-
rock of our superstructure. Cheap land and cheap money
involve cheap food, cheap shelter, cheap everything, a
cheap country to live in, just the very things a benefi-
cent Creator has made provision for his children to
enjoy. The proverbial sweat of the brow would be per-

2() Money and the Money Question in Canada.

ceptibly lessened by thus acting out enlightened Christi-
anity, and, with our improved machinery and appliances
to lessen and expedite labour, agriculture would be the
king of occupations.

A third source open to have an abundant supply of
cheap money. Canada has, say 100,000,000 acres of alien-
ated lands and 5,000,000 people, divided thus, say 3,000,-
000, or 000,000 families, which would give a 150 acre
farm to each engaged in agriculture, 2,000,000 or 400,000
families, engaged in mariufacturing, merchants, exchanges
of all kinds and occupations, the latter having the re-
maining 16| acres to each family. Suppose each of the
G00,000farms occupied, imj>foved and successfully worked,
and the average value, 85,000, were mortgaged to the
government for !?2:000 each at 2 per cent., would be $1,-
200,000,000 at 2 per cent, for as long as the borrower
liked to pay the 2 per cent. There would thus be ar
annual revenue of $24,000 000 to the government, ana
$1,200,000,000 of money in circulation, a great part of
wliich would be spent in improving and beautifying our
faiins, and making them more productive. It almost
takes one's breath away to think of this source so avail-
able of such an abundant supply of good, sound money
within our reach, compared with our present poverty of
money capital to further improve our farms. At present
we borrow on farm mortgages money at from 5 per cent,
to 8 per cent, up to 50 per cent, of the value for only 4
or 5 years at a time, and the interest, a vast sum, is lost
to the country every year. This plan would give money
at 2 per cent, as long as they liked, and only up to 33jt
per cent, of the value, and the government receive a

Money and the Money Qnedion in Canada. 27

large annual revenue. If government had not enough
deposit money to loan this large amount if applied for,
simply print legal tender notes for the balance, and can-
cel so many every year, if need be, with the interest re-
ceived, and if they were never cancelled they would be
as sound money as any, because of the security being so
simple, viz., a $o,0()0 farm for a 82,000 loan,

A fourth source. Money saved and stored for a rainy
day. Suppose an average family, of five persons the
parents and three cliiidren. That for each child from
birth, until the age of twenty, the father deposited SI
yearly with the government at 2 per cent, compound in-
terest, for the mother SSO yearly from 20 to 60 years, and
for himself $100 yearly from 20 to 60. Each child, or youni^
man and woman, at the age of twenty would have S24/^''<y
at their credit, the mother, at 60, would have $3,()80t^Vt5)
and the father himself $6,161 . And those who never were
married, each man and woman from 20 to 60, deposited
$100 and $50 respectively for themselves, what a nice
sum each would have at their credit at 60 years of age.
If one family could do this, and surely it ought to be
attainable if things were even half right, many could
lay past far more if they had a mind to. Why could not
the vast majority of our million industrious families do
the same ? What a vast accumulation of numey de-
posited with government, and an e(pial amount available
to lop.n on real estate at 2 per cent. What would then be
the need for life insuring ? Each insured his life as he
went along life's journey without any insurance agents
dogging every likely man's steps to insure his life.

In answering the Fifth question, it was said cheap

^■'' '■.»t

28 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

money would be an untold blessing to all, except those
who lived by lending money. How would it affect the
latter class ? Money is loaned by loan and trust com-
panies on real estate, by banks for the country's com-
merce, and private individuals everywhere to loan
companies, banks, corporations in debentures, to indivi-
duals and the government savings bank. As regards
loan conii)anies, banks and corporations, sympathy for
them, as such, is not required. They are there simply
because there is a demand for them, and they make
money in hard times when others do not. Under pre-
sent money arrangements, or, more properly speaking,
derangements, they are on a paying basis. Those of
them which could not exist and thrive under Free Trade
in money had better give up and try some other occupa-
tion like other folk. Those who would suffer for a time
would be those who had money invested in shares in
loan and trust companies, banks and corporations, depen-
dent upon them for a living who were unable to work,
such as minors, disabled and aged people. As for the
children, the parents ought to lay up for them, we are
told, and the aged are the special care of the grown-up
sons and daughters. If the disabled and unfortunate
were the only ones in the community that would suffer,
would they i-oally suffer want ? Our |)i'esent outflow of
benelicence, small though it may be in comparison with
present needs, is an arswc to the question. If all had
been making some prudent arrangements for a rainy day,
as outlined above, methinks minors and infirm by reason
of age or otherwise would not have been so dependent
upon dividends from soulless corporations. Banks are a

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 29

necessity, and I presume will be. The most important
thing for them, for the general good, is that they be
established on a sound free trade money basis.

Seventh. How long will Money last ? New money
that is created by labour and put into the national
medium is there for all time, or until it wears out, and, if
paper money, its youth can be renewed perpetually at a
nominal cost. Money follows and ministers to men's
wants after they cease to labour; even after they die it
works on, or is ready to work when employed. It abhors
idleness as truly as air abhors a vacuum. No matter how
often it changes owners, it is always ready for work. We
read of good men when they die that they rest from their
labours and their works do follow them, or, for their
works follow with them (R.V.). So it is with money.

Eighth. Who should make money legal and issue it ?
•Being a national commodity, the government of the
country, it is manifest, only can make it legal, and ought
to issue it as well. And being a representative thing and
not the thing itself, and costs a mere trifle to make
and issue, why should a few chartered banks have the
power to issue and thus have a monopoly ? It is simply
class legislation, a thing which cannot endure under good
Christian government, except for unfortunates, criminals,
or madmen. What reason, in co.nmon fairness, is there in
giving a few men, mostly rich men, a monopoly of a na-
tional thing? Common sense says the nation which makes
it legal and issues it should reap any incidental or legiti-
mate advantage that flows from it. This is one of the last
monopolies that will die ; it may die hard ; nevertheless,
its doom is written and is coming apace. If we, as wise

30 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

men, do not take time by the forelock and relieve its death
of unnecessary uneasiness and pain, circumstances will do
it for us by a lingering and emaciating, galloping or linger-
ing consumption, just according to our knowledge and
wisdom exercised. We, as wise and supreme physicians,
have the power of its life and death in our hands. Jf
Canada abolished this monopoly when the bank charters
expire about the end of the century and had free trade
in money, well would it be for Canada as a whole, and
not one whit injurious to the best interests of the
bankers. There is a good deal of misunderstanding in
the public mind about banking business. Those who
understand it tell us that, " *our banks have authority to
issue from 35 to 50 per cent, more tlian they have d(me —
that is, they work with from $24,000,000 to S30,000,000
less circulation — less monetary resources than they have
power to use by law," simply because the money won't
stay out ; it comes into them in spite of them ; " *the whole
drift and tendency of modern business methods are to
lessen the volume of bank notes in circulation, as pay?
ment by cheques is becoming almost universal." They
do vastly more business by cheques and merchants' paper
than by bank notes.

Ninth, Wliat is its right use and abuse ? Its first
manifest use is to enable us to live. Its next to
pay our debts, not before the necessaries, but before the
luxuries of life are enjoyed. And here comes in a nice
point. When or where does the one end and the other
begin ? This must be left with the individual and his
Maker to settle. It may be a lifetime work to settle

* Insurance and Finance Chronicle, Montreal.

Money and tke Money Question in Canada. 31

that. The right uses it can be put to are so luanifest it
is needless to specify ; each is accountable and, as a rule,
has little difficulty in knowing some good purpo.;e. It
is sometimes difficult to tell whether to cfive it wfien un-
solicited for some praisewoithy ol)ject, or to em})loy it in
increasing business, with the view of having more to
give for some good purpose, and, consequently, for the
glory of God. " No man liveth unto himself." The
great question. What is tlie chief end of man ? is in-
volved. No man has a right to waste it. It can hardly
be wasted. Many by its wrong use waste themselves,
but not the money. No sane man will destroy it. Tlie
greatest waste we Canadians are guilty of is in banish-
ing it from the country in the shape of annual interest.
It is lost to the country, but not to others. What illimit-
able fields for usefulness are always open to us it is
needless to expatiate on.

Tenth, Who should borrow, and on what conditions ?
Only those who can profitably do so. Borrowing is a
commercial transaction, and should be on fair and equal
terms to both parties. " The borrower is servant to the
lender," the wise man tells us, not that it should be so.
It was so in his days and is so in ours yet, but applied
Christianity is going to change that as well as other un-
fair things. The laws of Christian countries should be
so framed that borrower and lender are on an equality.
Lending and borrowing is just a temporary sale for a
definite limited time ; a mutual benefit which implies a
mutual obligation. The lender must be made sure of
his own at the specified time, and the interest annually.
The borrower must be as sure as possible, and not hin-

32 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

dered and hampered in his business operations by un-
just and uncertain laws that may render it impossible
for him to meet his obligations. There must be fixity
of trade regulations, and they can only be fixed by being
free all the time, and a fixed national suitable money
standard, a standard which will not (ihange except by
statute, and which should never be changed without due
consideration and timely notice, and then men would
know what they were doing. As things are at present,
the borrower is at the mercy of circumstances to an
enormous extent, through the want of these two essen-
tials in our national laws. Our borrowing upon land is
on a wrong principle, at least from a wrong source.

Eleventli. Interest and Usury. Money being the pro-
duct of labour, nature does not forbid interest when
loaned, nay, it demands it as a right. Money, that from
which interest is derived, is essentially individual and
also national in a special sense ; consequently, interest
must vary according as it is individual and national for
the time being. The interest which governments give
for it when loaned to them must be fixed by statute.
The interest when in possession of individuals must not
be fixed by statute, but by individuals, because it would
be a violation of individual freedom of action. It would
be as wrong to bind men to a fixed rate of interest as to
bind them to sell their goods at a fixed price. Exorbit-
ant interest is what w^e understand by usury — more
than what the law allows, or ought to allow, for govern-
ments to give more interest to individuals for money
deposited with it than the national interest would be
usury. And for governments to charge more than the

Money and the Money Quest ion in Canada. 3J^

national interest, and put it into revenue, would be making
individuals pay usury to the nation. What the indivi-
dual paid over the nationa' inteiest he was made to pay
to others who had no claim to it. Individiiala, banks
and others must be left free to charge and pay what
interest they mutually agree upon. Under our present
derangements and arrangements loan companies are charg-
ing usury all the time, inasmuch as the law very wrongly
allows or virtually compels men to mortgage their lands
to them at, say from 5 per cent to 7 per cent., when the
government only should be the mortgagee, and the in-
terest they ought to pay the government is the national
interest, say about 2 per cent.' at present is all it ought
to be. The banks in charging say 8 per cent, for short
dates is not usury ; it is only fair interest ; it pays both
the lender and the borrower. Take a typical example.
Say a merchant borrows $1,000 for three months at 8 per
cent, per annum; he gets from the bank $980; the baidcer
gets $20 for the three months, with about one minute's
time spent in the transaction. The merchant, say a
drover, buys and ships 30 cattle each week at $1 per head
clear profit 12x30=8360. Atthe end of three months, with
the proceeds of the last shipment, he pays back to the
bank the $1,000. Four times $360=81,440 profit for the
year. Many drovers ship two times in a week, and some
from more stations than one, and also look for more than
$1 per head of profit. Many merchants turn over their
capital many times a year through the help of the banks,
and have many profits in one year ; but the farmer has
only one crop, one profit in the year. Should his land
bring forth a hundredfold he would do well, but if only
0

Money and the Money Question in Canada.

sixty or tlurtyfolfl after expenses all ti)ld are paid arul
paying 7 poi' cent, over and above, tliero is nolliing left
if the prices be low. But if his huul yi' Id «»nly twenty-
fold, which would be about 25 bushels of wheat and 50
bushels of (»ats and barley to the acre, whicdi is above the
av^erage, in many eases not over lialf that amount is
reaped on account of circuuistiinees beyoiwl his control,
such as untimely frosts, drouth, storms, rust, midge,
weevil, wireworm, joint worm, Hessian lly, pe^. bug, and
other iliings ; in the case ef stock, cattle diseases, flies of
all kinds, cattle embargo; low prices, dear implements,
dear living on account of tarifls, and upon the top say
C per cent, on half the value of" the (arm, and add to that
the national debt interest of S pur cent, or 4 per cent., for
it comes upon the land in tlu; long run, and where is the
fariiier ? Is it any wonder times are hard and farm pro-
perty depreciating in value ? I can speak as a farmer of
S-t years' experience in Cana<la, that money loaned on
real estate farm property at present is not woith more
than 2 per cent. ; but give Canadian farmers the oppor-
tunity to mortgage theii- farms to tlieir own government
at 2 per cent., and foi- as long as they choose to pay it, and
things will boom in Canada without danger of bursting,
unless it be through too great worhlly [)rosperity they
forget the interest they owe to their Creator and Re-
deemer.

Ihvelfth. Some Disadvantages and, Dangers of Metal
Money and A dvantages and Safety of Pai^ei' Money.
The principal disadvantages are Costliness, Inconvenience,
Comparative Scarcity of the kinds used. Gold and Silver,
Liability to wear and be lost, Liability to fluctuate, and

Moi}(>>/ and the Mo)ie>/ QueM'ion in Canada. .'{5

Danger of l)oing cornereil by speculators. Having gold
and .silver niediiuns costinu thoir full face value adds
100 jH'r cent, to the co.st of the medium. Why have a
costly nieiliinu when a cheap one is equally good, or
better i Its inconvenience is so great that it cannot be
used for a ten-thousandth part of the country's commerce.
It can only be used for small transactions ; its greatest use
is for frnctions.

The comparative scarcity is a fatal objection. It is
liable to wear away and be lost. The wearing away
|)rocoss may seem small ; but is it small in the aggregate ?
In the bank of England sovereigns are not counted ; it is
too inaccurate and slow; they are shovelled and weighed
and the value arrived at by weight — the tear and wear
is irrevocably lost. If shipped to other countries, it the
ship founders and goes down, gold and all is lost in the
bottom of the sea. Its liability to fluctuate is another
serious objection. Gold does not fluctuate much ; but
what is the reason ? Is it not because so many countries
use it for money purposes, and by making it the money
standard, even the standard by which silver money is
valued ? This liability to fluctuate, combined with mak-
ing it the standard of money, gives speculators an oppor-
tunity to corner it ; and to make money without working
for it is simply protection of gold metal. Because of this
fluctuating quality there is alwa3^s danger, both from
sudden demands for quantity in proportion to the sup-
ply, and great increase of supply and small demand. As
examples, let us quote from " The Insurance and Finance
Chronicle " : " India seems like a bottomless well in
its capacity for absorbing metallic treasures. In the last

3(i Money and the Money Question in Canada.

33 yeais it has iniported $1,786,125,000 of gold and sil-
ver, or 854,000,000 worth each year. This vast sum is
stated on good authority to have gone to swell the aecu-
mulation , '^f the native princes and other wealthy inhabi-
tants. Should they ever develop spending tastes, the
eflect on tlie metallic currencies of the world would be
serious." "The price of silver fell recently in London be-
low the record of 28 pence per ounce. The mischievous
results of a coinage chiefly of a metal liable to such serious
<lepreciation as silver, as shown in recent years, is seen
in the panic which has been caused by the recent decline
in this metal. It is lit i - Lirwnthat in Lancashire mills
and warehouses the fluctuations in prices of silver are
watched daily, as wheat prices are on the stock exchange,
financial and shipping operations having to be regulated
according to this monetary barometer. The days when
any coin, as the rupee in India, is the standard of value for
a country is coming to an end. A standard should stand
firm, not jump up and down like mercury in a thermo-
raetei-, as silver does, to the extreme disturbance of all
trade dependent on its value." In the United States,
" in 1878, fine silver to the extent of 291,272,000 ounces
were purchased at about $1.06 an ounce. In 1890, 168,-
674,000 ounces were bought at 92tVo cents per ounce,
these enormous purchases first elevating and then, by
over-stimulation of production, depressing prices. The cost
of these purchases was $464,210,000. Silver a few days
ago was quoted at 60 cents per ounce, so that tho silver
bought by U.S. Treasury, valued at current rates, is now
worth $276,000,000, being $188,210,000 less than it cost.
The probabilities all point to a further reduction. Ex-

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 37

perience first-hand is an expensive article. The (J.S.
people have paid 188,000,000 of dollars to find ont a fact
about silver which has been notorious for ages, viz., that
it is a marketable commodity like wheat and other pro-
ducts." Verily, " folly is wasteful and wisdom economi-
cal." In so far as these facts have reference to silver
they are equally applicable to gold; gold is a marketable
commodity like wheat or silver. " Bad coins of good
silver seem on the face not possible, but the great differ-
ence between the net value of American dollars and
quarters being now so low compared to their face value,
coiners are issuing bogus coins made of silvei' equal in
quality to the genuine. The margin between these spu-
rious coins and what they pass for is over 30 per cent.,
amply sufficient to cover cost of making and leave a
large profit. This was done in days when English coins
were made seriously below their face value."

In the future, and so long as gold the world over is
made the standaid of money, will there be a demand for
gold to be held in reserve to redeem the paper money, to
what extent no man knows. Should the supply of j^old
seriously decrease,, a gold famine, and consequent panic,
will be the result, and speculators will take advantage of
it and take the nation by the throat. What will there
be to prevent a dozen or two of very rich men laying
their heads together, convert their wealth into redeem-
able paper, and demand all the gold reserves, both in
Canada and the U.S. ? If they did so, theyjiad both
countries by the throat. What could the governments
do ? They could not get more without buying it, and
what could they buy it with ? (This might be the

W f

38 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

best thing that could happen. It may possibly require
some such experience to bring people to their senses, so
that they may be led to consider to the bottom the money
question, and put it on the rock foundation of labour,
and discard the gold standard altogether.) This is the
great danger of a metal standard, as it is called. Britain
could take the Yankees and Canadians by the throat by
demanding gold for their loans, which are all on the gold
basis, and make them bankrupt — but not the people,
thank God, who rules above millionaires and govern-
ments. The people can alter our money system; and we
are going to learn wisdom in this matter, and put our
money system in a better, simpler and more profitable
shape, and at the same time pay all our debts, as we now
do, by the good hand of God giving us the ability and
willing hearts to work in unison with Him, and through
His wondrous works in giving sunshine and rain and
fruitful seasons, filling our homes and barns with all
manner of store and our hearts with joy and gladnes.s.

Should the supply of gold increase enormously the
world over, as it is quite possible it may in the near
future, what then ? Suppose it became as plentiful as
iron or coal, what then, if we still kept to the gold stand-
ard? The result would be lots of bogus coins of good,
genuine gold issued by counterfeiters, and who would
that benefit but the counterfeiters and ^^old diggers, not
us Canadians one iota, unless our gold diggers and coun-
terfeiters, if we had any of the latter ])ersuasion. And
what wrong would the counteifeiter.s be doing to any-
body if they put lots of good, genuine gold sovereigns in
fircuhition, if gold is sound standard money ? Siippose

Monfy and the Money Question in Canada. 39

in Canada we found a go\(\. deposit of a few acres and in
each man's farm a cubic yard. Canadians, with their
mortgaged farms and national debt, would send shiploads
to Britain and pay oft our indebtedness, and what wrong
would we be doing if Britnin still kept to the gold stan-
dard ? Methinks if we and other countries paid our
debts to Britain in gold, and not in produce, Britain
would change her gold standaid m.ighty quick. She
would want goods; " Food, food," would be the cry, and
" We will pay you in manufactured goods. We will not
lend you any more money on the gold basis."

The advantages and safety of |)aper money are great
indeed and mu.st be patent to all. It is the cheapest of
all mediums. A Bank of England bill costs only about
one cent, a dollar bill, a ten, fifty, or a thousand dollar
bill not any more, I suppose. It is the most convenient
of all mediums of national money, so much so that virtu-
ally the world's commerce is conducted by it. When it
wears out it is not lost but can be renewed at a nominal
cost, and if lost in the bottom of the sea or burnt in a
ij^reat conflagration it need not necessarily be lost. If the
proof of the loss be absolute, and the nundiei's and de-
nominations of the notes known, they could be replaced
same as lost drafts, cheijues, or P.O. orders, when names
and amounts are known. Who would be wronged, or
what right principle violated, by so doing with the na-
tional money, as is done with the individual ? None what-
ever. It would be a national benefit through the indi-
vidual not suffering loss. There need be no limit to the
supply, because the supply will be in proportion to the
labour, industry and frugality of the citizons; the greater

40 Money and the Money Question in Canada,

these conditions prevail the greater the supply will be.
And the millionaires and speculators could neither corner
nor monopolize the labour, the industry, the frugality ;
they would rather need to exercise these qualities. This
is the great safety of paper money. It has not one dis-
advantage. Gold has many disadvantages. Why in the
name of wonder do we Canadians not look into tlie money
question? We are asleep on this matter.

International Monvj. Commerce being international
to such an extent as now prevails, international money
suited to the times and circumstances would be a great
convenience. Free commerce, "the international law of
God," as Richard Cobden so beautifully puts it, is a
necessity for the welfare of nations, a great civilizer, and,
when conducted on Christian principles, a great Chris-
tianizer. Our present system of money derangements is
just in keeping with our commercial tarifi' derangements.
Both of them are alike awkward, stupid, foolish, waste-
ful, and therefore unchristian. This reform would be
very easy of accomplishment, and there is a very simple
way without John Bull having to give up his gold sov-
ereign idol. The simplicity is so apparent it is a wonder
it has not been accomplished before now. Doubtless it
would have been but for the time and energy worse than
lost in discussing and working out tariff" nostrums and
nonsense on this side of the Atlantic these thirty odd
years back, and in Britain, necessarily no doubt, in dis-
cussing and lighting over Home Rule and other evils
springing out of the land regulations and social problems
in general.

To have a common decimal system for Britain, Canada

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 41

and the United States would be the simplest thing im-
aginable. Even if Britain should continue her gold sov-
ereign and gold standard, let her do so ; it is her own
business, it will only hurt herself. Lot us Canadians, at
any rate, put our monej'^ .system upon a sound paper
basis and discard gold altogether, and have the honour of
being the first Christian peo])le to appreciate the excel-
lency of paper money founded on labour, and keeping
silver coins as current monev for fractions of a dollar.
All that Britain would require to do would be to make her
halfpenny and sovereign a very little different in value
or relative value, call her halfpenny the five-hundredth
part of the sovereign, and her intermediate coins to fit in,
Britain's currency is halfpenny, penny, three-penny, four-
penny, sixpence, shilling, florin, crown, sovereign, and £-
note. Canada's, cent, 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents,
one dollar bills, fives, etc. All that Britain would need
to add would be five and ten-cent pieces and abolish her
three-penny and four- penny pieces, and make her crown
four shillings in place of five shillings, and be equal to
our dollar. And Canada would add a 1 2i-cent piece.
And to please Britain and show respect to the sovereign
call our five dollar bill a sovereign, or suveian, which
Webster tells us is the true spelling. " We retain this bar-
barous orthography from the Noiman souvereign, which
doubtless was adopted through a mistake of its origin."
And let each country fix their own national standard or
interest to suit themselves. At present it would be found
that 2 per cent., the present Bank of England rate, would
be most suitable for both countries — quite likely for a
considerable time to come.

s 1

42 Movey and the Money Question in Canada.

International money and international trade are close-
ly connected, the former being a representative, the
ether the things represented. Britain, by her system of
ly lending money to other nations and free trade in

0. , has prospered amazingly. These two funda-
mentals, along with government by men of integrity and
iii^h m M<^1 character, as the first consideration, have put
and Keep tv in the foremost place among the nations
of the world, and will keep her there until other nations
adopt the same things. If Canada, in place of dawdling
along like slaves with bad rulers, and indefinitely with
tariffs further wasting herself until by sheer force of
circumstances she is compelled, as Mother Britain was,
to adopt free trade half a century ago, would adopt free
trade in goods, and inaugurate free money on a sound
paper basis, she would have a great advantage over
Britain, because of her vast supply of raw material with-
in herself in land, minerals, timber and fish.

Canada, if she is wise in her day and generation, will
show to the world what the principles contained in the
Old Gospels, combined with the New, can do to put her
worthily alongside, if not ahead, of the Mother Country
and the U. S., as she will do if they stick to the gold
idol and she cast the idol aside. Circumstances alone, if
we do not take good heed, will force us to ado|>t free
goods and free sound money. It will be either these or
})rotracted dispeace, with poverty, bankruptcy, revolution,
or repudiation if we continue our present system of bor-
rowing for another decade or two, even if we substitute
what is called a revenue tariff.

If Canada and the U. S., before the close of the can-

T"-

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 48

tury, would adopt paper money founded upon property
productive of the essentials of life and comfort, they
would pay all their debts and obligations same as now,
and with same materials, and be better able to pay them
than they will be if they continue the present system
and adopt free trade in goods and money, and also stop
borrowing from outsiders ; it would be a new epoch and
liave far-reaching consequences. It would put the cope-
stone upon the nineteenth century. These things, there
cannot be a (^oubt, are essential to the salvation of both
countries, and would be found to be incidentally great
purifiers of politics. A purifier is the great ne^^d of the
times. They would be like trees, the roots deeply and
securely embedded in good soil, the branches spreading
farther than the roots, and as if " planted by the streams
of water, that brought forth its fruit in its season, whose
leaf- also doth not wither," the leaves verily would be
good " for the healing of the nations."

SOME SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS.

Let us, as wise Canadians, consider some imjiortant
matters partly suggested by the foregoing consideration
of the Money Question and the closely related Land
Question considered in a previous pamphlet on Direct
Taxation.

Real estate in Canada has depreciated to an enormous
extent of late years, say the 12 years 1883-1895. For
city and town property I pretend not to speak, but, as an
Ontario farmer of some 34 years' experience, can speak to
some extent for the Dominion. The general idea or be-

!l -J

44 Money and the Money Quef^tion in Canada.

lief is that it has depreciated from 25 per cent, to 30 per
cent. Some say 40 per cent. The Montreal Witness on
March ]7tli, 189G, says : " The value of improved farms in
the ejist (leferring to Ontario and the Provinces further
east) has been reduced probably more than one-half on
the average." Say there are 500,000 farms of 100 acres
each in the Dominion, on the average, w^orth $4,000 in
lScS3, which is under the mark, the total value v» ould be
$2,000,000,000. Lowest estimate 25 per cent. = S500,-
000,000 depreciation. Medium estimate 37^ per cent.=:
$750,000,000. Highest estimate 50 per cent., probably
more, =: $1,000,000,000. Twelve more years at this rate
and the whole is wiped out, and 24 years at the lowest
estimate.

The yearly income of the farmers of Canada some time
ago, Sir Richard ('artwright said, was reduced by $20,-
000,000. Some one else more recently put the sum at
$30,000,000. Sir Richard Cartwright, I doubt not, will
believe me as one speaking from experience, that both
sums put together do not now represent the sum total by
a long way. Take a typical case in this part of Ontario*
The sales on an average farm, in the rough, are aliout as
follows:

i|i.v 4 fat cattle = 5,000 lbs. weight

, re(luce(

J price

He.

r )1

.=$75

" 30 fat lambs = 3,000

lie.

= 45

" 15piLt8 =3,000

lie.

= 45

" 80 fleeces wool = 150 lbs. "

10c.

= 16

" one hdise

= 65

" 100 bushels of wheat

t«

4Cc.

= 40

" 250 bushels barley

3llC.

1 1

= 75

SSliO

Money and the Money Quedion in Canada. 45

The expenses are just about as high now as they were
years ago, but to make some allowance for reduction, de-
duct the odd $60, leaving $800 for one. Ontario's $200,-
000 X $300 is 860,000,000 for Ontario alone. But go to
some other parts of the Dominion where barley, horses
and wheat were specialties, and what do we find ? Say a
farmer sells 2,000 bushels of barley at 30 cents, reduced
I)rice is $600. Another sells, say, 10 horses at $75 reduc-
tion :=$7o0. Another sells, say, 5,000 bushels of wheat
at even 30 cents less =$1,500. The only class whose in-
come has not been much reduced are those who made
cheese a specialty. These facts tell the tale and furnish
the key, the reason, the kernel of the depreciation. Is it
any wonder farmers and those dependent upon their suc-
cess have been complaining of hard times ? Will some
city brother kindly sit down, as the writer has done and
thought out matters, and tell us how much city and town
real estate have depreciated, and how much the income
of the average citizen has been reduced, and how much
capital has been dissipated on unsuccessful enterprises
during the past twelve years after the " National Policy "
was fairly into working order ? City men and country-
men, our interests are all one. We are brothers. Tell
us how much our total loss amounts to, and then we will
sit down together and talk over matters.

Now what has been the cause or the causes of this de-
preciation of property and reduction of yeaily income ?
Is it to continue, grow worse, or get better ? One of
them it will be. As wise brothers and sisters, sons and
daughters of the same kind Father, let us consider our
ways, and ask ourselves are any means within our reach

1 1

46 Money and the Money Quedion in Canada,

fco mend matters ; for change of some kind there will be.
If we, as wise men and women, do not of our own will
make a change, circumstances or Providence will do it
for us, as was done in Britain in 1846, when it was either
free bread the staff of life, starvation, or rebellion. In
our case it will be either free trade in goods and money,
which are the same thing, or, bankruptcy and slav-
ery to alien landlords ; rebellion or repudiation, which
latter is passive rebellion, and the last thing Canadians
would think of. The great Conservative party in Bri-
tain, headed by Sir Robert Peel, yielded just in time to
the inevitable, and carried free bread and saved the
nation. The men who dreaded ruin most were the very
men that prospertd most, viz., the landlords and the farm-
ers, for a long number of years, as a direct result of the
enormous expansion of commerce. Free bread opened
the door f<H' freedom in many other things. Free Bibles
preceded free bread seven years. Free newspapers soon
followed in the wake, and free knowledge.

What has caused the depreciation of real estate ?
Simply the reduced incomes of the farmers. What caused
the reduced incomes ? Simply reduced prices of farm
products, without a corresponding reduction in farm ex-
penses ; this we may say is the sole cause. As a rule,
farmers have not lived more extravagantly so as to
account for it, many have been cutting down expenses
for many years, doubtless some have been indulging in
too big and too fine houses, top buggies, pianos, and
binders, to their injury ; but if they had not indulged in
them, so much the worse for the builders and manufac-
turers unless they did not pay for them ; but as a rule

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 47

these things are better paid than the blacksmith's or doe-
tor's bills, and gospel bills if there were any of that sort.
Neither has it been caused to any extent on account of
goneral failure of crops nor deterioration of the soil. Let
us be thankful most of the farmers, notwithstanding the
hard times, aim at and do tolerably well keep up the fer-
tility of the land. If that goes, all is gone.

The price of farm products we cannot control or regu-
late ; that is done by otliers elsewhere, and they are more
likely to decrease than to increase. We are powerless
here, but we can control and regulate the expenses, to a
great extent, to a greater extent, than almost any man
imagines. We are not powerless here, but all-powerful.
Were these controllable expenses needful or a necessity,
unavoidable or avoidable ? To ask the question is to an-
swer it. What has been the chief controllable expenses ?
]Jear goods and dear implements by tarifi's, which pre-
vented living cheaply and producing cheaply, and dear
money — dear capital to cany on our business, improve
our farms and make them more productive. How much
is the loss to the many by tariffs ? The writer assumed
it at $50,000,000 in his former pamphlet. Sir Richard
Cartwright says our tariffs take from the people $2 for
$1 that goes to revenue; in some cases 10 for 1 — tliat is,
as $40,000,000 is to $20,000,000. If our customs and ex-
cise take well-nigh $30,000,000, including cost of collect-
ing, that Avould be $60,000,000. Mr. McCarthy puts it
higher. Here is $60,000,000 yearly of unnecessary ex-
pense by our tariffs, a great part of which is borne by
the farmers. Because they cannot shift any of their
share;, they have to bear what others shift.

48 Money and the Money Quextio7i in Canada.

If this $60,000,000 ol^' imriocessary expenses has been
caused by dear •,a)ods, what about dear money and liii^h
interest, for our money is just our goods in another
shape? We will divide the money into two classes.
B'irst, for a long time we have been borrowing mightily
from Britain individually and nationally, paying on an
average for individual borrowings, say, 7 per cent., w^hich
is under the mark for a series of years, and, say per
cent, for the national debt. This latter is just e nd
mortgage on the farm lands without any other security
than our good name for honest industry and peaceful-
ness as citizens, virtually making the interest 11 per
cent. In all prudence and fairness the first mortgager
who gives the undoubted and unimpaired seci rity should
have money the cheapest ; but we have reversed the
case and made the poor man carry, not only his own
burden, but the nation's as well, for it comes to that in
spite of us. By doing so the farmers are rendered less
able to pay their own debts, and, consequentl}'', less able
to pay the nation's. It is worse than burning the candle
at both ends, because it takes away the ability to im-
prove and render the farms more productive. If during,
say, the twenty past years farmers had been paying
only 4 per cent., the rate paid on the national debt, their
farms to-day would have been more productive and, con-
sequently more valuable.

For some lime the writer has been trying to find out
the sum total of farm mortgages in the Dominion, but
has been unable. We know the national debt is about
$300,000,000 gross. It would not be extravagant to
suppose the total real estate mortgage, farm and city, in

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 49

the Dominion to be about as much, and which has been
paying 3 per cent, more than the national debt has been
paying. This would be S0,000,000 more the individuals
have been paying than they should. These would make
SG9,000,{)00 unnecessary and avoidable by good manage-
ment. Why could not the government arrange with
the money lenders to lend money on real estate as cheap-
ly as is done to the government, seeing that real estate
and the owners of it are the only security for the nation
or anybody else ? Second. If borrowing from people out-
side the Dominion is an unsound principle and, conse-
quently, sound economics to borrow from our own, then
we are paying now more than we need be doing if we
made our laws so as to give and keep Canada for the
Canadians, and not liable to be seized lawfully by aliens.
If the $300,000,000 borrowed from outside Canada and
paying at present, say, C per cent., were borrowed from
our own government at 2 per cent., the government
would receive $6,000,000 for revenue and the mortgagers
save $12,000,000; this would virtually be $18,000,000
saved to the Dominion. If the national debt was put
upon the same basis, which is now paying, say, 3 per
cent., it would be a total of $27,000,000 saved. By doing
so no right principle would be violated, nor would there
be any risk or loss, but all gain. The national debt was
borrowed to be spent on productive works such as canals
and railways ; the revenue from them would be the
counterpart of the interest the real estate mortgages
were paying.

Toronto, in taxation matters, is just the Dominion in
miniature, with one important difference. Through the
D

50 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

false unearned increment theory she has been borrowing
on mortgage on fictitious values, and hence much loss.
In many cases, it seems, the properties mortgaged are
not worth much more than what they are mortgaged for,
whereas the farms mortgaged throughout the Dominion
are worth at least double, and a vast number not mort-
gaged at all. It would be interesting to know the rela-
tive proportions of mortgaged properties in cities and
towns compared with farm properties that are free from
mortgages.

A leader in the Toronto Globe of November 19th, on
the Civic Situation, is in part as follows. It is most in-
structive at this time, and verily profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous-
ness.

THE CIVIC SITUATION.

" The civic situation may be summed up in three words,
' debt, taxation, assessment.' Our debt is too high, our
assessment is notoriously beyond actual values, and our
taxation is burdensome in the extreme. Civic reform in
the commonly understood sense, that is to say, the im-
provement of the machinery at City Hall, while it may
bring better men into office and give better methods for
the future, can do little towards easing the taxpayers'
load or mending the broken fortunes of hundreds of citi-
zens. There is but one way of doing these things, and
that is by reduction of debt, reduction of taxation, re-
duction of assessment. If the citizens would frankly
acknowledge that as a municipality Toronto has been
straining its income, and recklessly piling up debt, there

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 51

\/ould be prospect of speedy betterment. Tiie real
difRciilty is v-hat there is a party in the Council backed
by not a few citizens, the irieuibers of which still talk
boom. If it is no lonnjer real estate boom, it is acjueduct
boom or some other variety.

" What is required to place the people of Toronto, indi-
vidually and as a community, in financial secinity once
more, is not boom talk, but work and economy in public
and private expenditures. This city is too nrreat, its in-
terests are too widespreading, to be at the mercy of an
element whose mania for unhealthy speculation threatens
the public credit. Toronto has all the essentials to met-
ropolitan life. It is tht; seat of goveinment of a fertile
and wealthy province. It has educational institutions
such as few cities can boast of. Thousands of students
crowd the halls of its colli!;]^es, and the tendency is stead-
ily toward the expansion of the educational facilities of
the city. The niercantile interests of Toronto are little,
if any, .less important than those of Montreal, and the
tendency of the times is demonstrated in the opening of
branch houses here by promiu nt Montreal firms. The
slow development of manufacturin;r was long the least
satisfactory feature of the business situation, but of late
the disposition of manufacturers to leave the city on the
promise of a bonus elsewhei'e has been checked. The
Massey bicycle factory, the glass works, the new Cobban
factory, the enlargement of the Kemp tin works, the re-
moval to Toronto of the Metallic Shingle Works of Mon-
treal, are all evidences of a revival in manufacturing.
To these things the optimist turns, and, viewing them,
says Toronto is all right.

'4i

52 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

" But there is anotlier side to the shield, and it is to be
feared the facts that may be cited by the pessimist are
quite as important as can be presented in favour of the
prosperity argument. If the city were not in debt, and
if the citizens in-^Widually were rid of their indebted-
ness, there can be no question that Toronto would bo to-
day, not only making a living, but an exceedingly good
one. It is the incubus of bad investments, of ruinous
speculations, of wealth sunk in unused public and pri-
vate enterprises, that weighs the people down. There
were in the city in 1894, the last year for which we have
a return, 4,976 vacant stores and dwellings. Of the 10,-
850 acres in the city proper, there were 3,502 wholly
vacant. That tells the whole story. Behind these facts
one can imagine all that is involved to owners of real
estate, in the overbuilt condition of the city. The rent-
als of all property, save in the business centre around
King and Yonge, have fallen enormously, so much so,
that in many cases much of the revenue is eaten up in
taxes. The owners of vacant land see no hope of turn-
ing their property to use by building upon it, and con-
tinue to pay interest and taxes in a hopeless sort of way,
because of tlie covenant in the morfjage that carries a
threat to deprive them of all their savings, if the prop-
erty cannot be eold for the face value of the mortgage.
Had the citizens only lost their own money in the house-
building and land-buying period, the trouble would have
been almost over by this time. The land would have
gone back to the city for taxes, and the houses would
have lain idle and exempt from taxation till required.
" Much of the money lost in these houses and lands,

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 53

however, was not the money of the people of Toronto.
The money of English capitalists and of the small in-
vestors throughout the province was loaned on mortgage
on these thousands of vacant houses and vacant acres,
and from the earnings of to-day the citizens have to pay
not only taxes, but interest on capital that is non-exist-
ent, or that is earning no return. It is this that keeps
Toronto in deep water, and that will cripple the city,
until by some years of the strictest economy the private
and public obligations of its citizens are redeemed. It
is more thati ever necessary to set before the people as
clearly as possible the growth of assessment, debt and
taxation in Toronto, and the part played in that growth
by the City Council, by the property owners directly,
and by the School Boards and^ other public bodies which
spend the taxpayers' money. Civic reform, in its finan-
cial aspect, is more important, and, we believe, more ur-
gently required than even leform in the machinery of
Council. The citizens must be impressed with the fact
that the troubles of to-day are the result of financial
excesses in the past, and that any attempt to improve
the machinery of Council that does not recognize extra-
vagance rather than corruption, as the besetting sin of
the Council and officers of the corporation, and of the
people themselves, must assuredly fail.

"In the accompanying calculations an endeavor is made
to show the gradual increase of per capita taxation in the
city, and the proportion of the taxation resulting from
the abnormal increase of the city debt during the years
of the boom. The period reviewed begins with the year
1887, when the fever of speculation was just beginning

54 Movey and the Money Question in Cano'^'^

to make itself felt, and before it bad materially affected
the city's expenditures. The following table gives the
population as returned by the assessors, which, it may be
observed, is invariably from 10,000 to 12,000 below that
shown by special census — the taxation for all purposes
inclusive of local rates, and the taxation per head of

popi

ihition : —

)pu

latl

on.

1SS7 118,40.3

1SS!» 139,4.r2

ISDl

107,431)

1S0;{ 109,099

189.") 174,309

Total
taxation.

1,481,499

1,903,145

2,974,554

3,291,950

3,018,058

Taxation
per head.

12.51
14.07
17.76
19.46
17.03

The estimates on ?!ccoiint of debt are at page one of the
estimates : —

Local improvement debt, annual rates thereon S 715,000

General ileht cliarges, less waterworks 699,000

Total §1,414,000

" Here, then, is the fact, and no specinl pleading can
overcome it, that of $3,018,000 taken by the tax collector
tliis year out of the pockets of the people of Toronto,
$1,414,000 were for no other purpose than meeting in-
terest on debt, and repaying mone\'' borrowed."

Here is the Queen City, full of wise and benevolent
men, taxing herself for municipal purposes $3,018,000, of
V hich $1,414,000, or 46.85 per cent., spent in paying in-
terest and sinking fund on borrowed money. " 4,976

Money and the Money Question in Cmiada. 55

vacant stores and dwellings, of the 10,850 acres in the
city proper, there were 3,562 wholly vacant. That tells
the wliole story." The whole story will not be easily
told. Here is part of the story, and may be profitable
for doctrine, at any rate. These 3,562 vacant acres would
be 35 farms of upwards of 100 acres each. If these had
been purchased by the city, say 17 years ago, when the
national impolicy was inaugurated, for say $6,000 each,
about the then market j^rice, or $210,000, and rented to
the then owners, who had all the stock and implements
necessary to work them, at $3 per acre =$300 for each,
it would have had $300 for each $6,000 of invested capi-
tal, or 5 per cent. Suppose the city had mortgaged these
35 farms to the Dominion Government to 50 per cent, of
their value at 2 per cent., for as long as the interest was
paid, 35 x $3,000 =$105,000 of borrowed capital the city
had, and the government getting 2 per cent., or-$60 for
each farm, in all $2,100 yearly revenue. Suppose the
city was to grow, and Tom, Dick and Harry wanted to
build a manufactory of some useful and much needed
kind, who would suffer, either out of the city or in it, if
the city loaned this $10-">,000 to them on a bond at 2 per
cent., to assist building the factory, the cost of which
was $800,000, the loan to continue as long as the factory
worked ? Continue the thing further, who would be in-
jured, or what right principle violated, if T., D. and H.
insured the factory for $200,000, if after say 5 or 10
years the factory was burned down ? They would lose
$100,000 of their own, and be in debt the $105,000 to
the city, the bond for which would become void, because
there was no factory, and they pay back their $105,000

56 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

which they borrowed 5 or 10 years before. The land
would be valueless until built upon again. During the
5 or 10 years T., D. and H. had made a profit of, say
$60,000 clear, and they wanted to build again a similar
factory, but lacked $100,000 of capital, what would pre-
vent the city from loaning the $105,000 again at 2 per
cent., on a bond that the factory was to be kept in oper-
ation ?

Toronto is a sample of many other cities. The citizens
thought to make rich by trafficking in land and real es-
tate, to be made rich and increase in goods, and to be in
need of nothing but more manufactories and more people
with money, even if they came from the impoverished
and depopulated surrounding country ; and it is to be
supposed think so still, only they are urged to exercise a
little more common sense. But what if the more manu-
factories and people with money don't come ? What will
become of the owners of the vacant stores and houses
and acres ? Of course, the vacant acres would be useful
for " potato patches," without going outside the city for
dear land, and the houses to take their lunch in, and for
the children to play at hide and seek.

The writer of " Civic Toronto " tells us " of late the
disposition of manufacturers to leave the city on a prom-
ise of a bonus elsewhere has been checked," but he does
not tell his farmer readers what checked the disposition
to leave. Might it not have been the rebate of 99 per
cent, on the imported material used in making binders
and other implements shipped to foreigners to assist them
to cut our throats, virtually making us accomplices in the
throat-cutting business ?

jitgt

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 57

Was such a spectacle ever seen in the world before ? A
country of such boundless resources and opportunities ;
a country with so many wise and good men, with a super-
abundance of theologians, statesmen, pastors, teachers and
politicians, all trying to enlighten, instruct, edify and
govern the people, and, withal, such a moral and religi-
ous people ; industrious to a fault, frugal and honest
with one another, each seeking to do well in a worldly
point of view, and many in a heavenly, and who believe
that the Gospel is the panacea for all our ills, to continue
such ruinous and evil systems in dealing with God's first
free gift to man, and man's use of God's gifts as exempli-
fied by ruinous, hateful and unjust tariffs on goods, and
ruinously iiigh interest on money, which latter is just
goods used in exchanging and preserving our labour, and
over and above to continue for such a long term of years
such a government as lately ruled at Ottawa, gasping out
its last breath to the last day, and beyond it if it could ;
a government " in whose hands is mischief and their right
hand full of bribes "; a government which deceived the
U.S. and the Canadian people, and endeavoured to deceive
even the Governor-General ; a government which appar-
ently nobody respected, and no one bad a good word to
say of it, except those with promises in their pockets. "A
nest of traitors!" A Queen City synagogue ruler, from
Ireland, tlie other Lord's Day, exclaimed, regardless of
giving offence to over-sensitive ears, " The politics of
Ireland are as far above the politics of Ottawa as the
heavens are above the earth." The exclamation was ap-
proved of by the vast congregation of worshippers.

Having, to some small extent, diagnosed the disease or

,v
i;.

■i\

«f

t :
(

58 Moiiey and the Money Question in Canada.

cause so far as the money loss is concerned by means of
false systems iulioi-ited and adopted by this generation,
revenue tariffs and high interest on real estate loans are
ours by inheritance ; protective tariff's by adoption. Let
us, as wise men, unite and find the remedy, for remedy
there must be, or else there is something wrong for which
man is not responsible. Tariffs on goods and high inter-
est on sound real estate loans, both alike must be abol-
islied if we as a people are either to have peace or pros-
j)erity. These two matters put upon the sure founda-
tions, our peace would be as a river, and prosperity great
indeed. We are all free traders individually in theory,
at heart, and by practice when we get the chfince, but
nationally we are slave traders in practice, so that men
cannot have the chance to buy and sell freely. How are
we to become free traders in practice, which thing is right
and should be practised, so that we can practice that
which we should ? There is only one way : we ourselves
must do it ; we won't let others do it. Is it common
sense to prevent other people sending their goods to us
free if we need the things they send and are willing to
pay for them ? We don't object to the people coming
free, we need them, and don't need to pay for them ; the
best kind worth having comes free. W^hy debar the goods
we need ? Inconsistency and insanity say debar them ;
common sense says come freely, come free, come to free-
dom.

Canada could easily abolish all import duties on goods,
and give the people the opportunity of getting cheap
goods and cheap money in abundance, by abolishing
duties and our present ruinous system of borrowing on

Money avd the Money Qnfistion in Canada. 59

real estate from outside tlie Dominion, and do our bor-
rowing within ouiselves. These two things couM be
done by 1st July, 1897, with great ease and satis-
faction, if only one leading man from each Province,
and say an equal number for the Dominion would meet,
some day soon, quietly with Lord Aberdeen in his pri-
vate capacity, after having previously, for ten days or
so, each separately at his own liome, outlined a phm of
Direct Taxation which they thought the most suitable in
every way for Canada to take the place of tariti* taxation,
and consider together ibr a day or two, and compare
plans ; they could devise a plan the main features of
which would be justice, efficiency and economy, and,
doubtless, tert thousand times better than our present or
any round about revenue tariff system that human in-
genuity could invent. For our present evil system ten
thousand o;ood reasons could be given acjainst and not
one in its favour.

In order to find out the best plan they would, of ne-
cessity, have to consider the land and money questions so
as to make each pay its fair share as far as possible.
In order to get a right understanding of those important
and vital questions they would have to apply to the con-
joint books of experience, Nature and Revelation, so
that all things may be done decently aiid in order. To
devise and apply a system of direct taxation would not
involve one tithe of the labour, time atid ingenuity to
devise and apply any system of tariff taxation. To be
diiect is a Tnust be, if we are to be successful or mete out
justice either as a nation or as individuals. To inaugur-
ate these changes in these two things, goods and money,

60 Money and tke Money Qtueatlon in Canada.

s :

there must be unity on a large scale ; city men and coun-
try men must know no distinction ; we are all loyal Can-
adians, and our interests arc one. The best men of all
pjirties must for^^et past bitternesses ; we are all guilty.
Keforiners, as they call themselves, have been asleep, or,
rather, the}^ have not risen to their true dignity through
want of moral couifige, in not facing direct taxation long
ago. John Knox, my near neighbour, a good specimen
of the original, a far-seeing man, tells me the great mis-
take the Hon. George Brown and the Reform Party made
was in not making direct taxation a plank in our Con-
federation Act, and, doubtless, he is right. Scotchmen
and the world owe much to courageous, wise, and far-
seeing John Knox in laying the foundation of national
prosperity, in planting parish schools beside the national
churches of Scotland ; he saw clearly the immense ad-
vantage of national schools conducted by God-fearing
men of moral courage, men of moral stamina, so as to
have a nation of manly men and womanl}'^ women. Con-
servatives have always been in the wrong, not because
they wert^ Conservatives, but because they wanted to
conserve what was wrong, or had become wrong, and
clung to it until some Sir Robert Peel or Benjamin Dis-
raeli stole the Reformers' clothes, which Sir John Mac-
donald should have done in 1878, but he had not gump-
tion enough. We are now told if the Reform Party had
gone in for high tariff then, the Conservatives would
have gone for free trade ; that may or may not be, how-
ever ; neither of them took place, hence our trouble to
some extent.

We may safely say the great majority of Canadians

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 61

111

IV •

» i»

would adopt free trade in goods now if they saw a pru-
dent and workable plan made plain to them. As regards
the money question, this most important matter has been
kept very much in the background. The great mass of
all parties everywhere seem never to have given it any
consideration with the view of finding out the proper
money standard. It has been entirely overlooked in the
hurly-burly and strife and loss of time about bad Rulers,
bad Tariffs, and bad Scho<il discussions, never even
thought that they might have been acting on the false
standard of another country to our hurt, without even
questioning whether or how we could have cheap money,
as cheap as the Bank of England rate, which we are fully
entitled to, considering the security we can give for it.

To talk to many good reformers about giving up the
gold standard and giving the owners of real estate the
liberty, if they chose, to use it to mortgage their prop-
erty to their own government in place of to aliens, they
hold up their hands in hori'or at the idea of putting such
power in the hands of the government, especially such
a one as had ruled in Canada for some time, as if it
would lead to ruin, national extravagance, delinquency,
and servility of the government to individuals. They
instance the Upper Canada Municipal Loan Fund and
the French assignats of the last century, overlooking the
essential difference between both of these plans and the
plan of individuals mortgaging their own lands to their
own government, the interest in all cases going into
revenue. The U. C. Municipal Loan Fund was calcu-
lated to foster municipal extravagance, because it lacked
the essential of direct individual responsibility. Real

62 Money and tlif' Moyie.y Question hi Canada.

I f

i i

estate borroworH, as individuals, j^^uttini,' inonoy at their
option from tlieir own jjoverninent at 2 per cent, would
be tlie veiy men whoso direct interest it would be to
have an honest, stable government. The Fn^nch as-
signats is not a parallel ca.se ; neither was the then
French nation u parallel to Canada of to-day. Wo are
supposed to be a Christian nation, not a nation of infidels
and, conse(iuently, tools. At that time France threw
Christianity aside all .she could. Tiiey were as tickle
and unstable as the wind. They even tried to abolish
the Sal)bath day's rest, or something like it, but did not
succeed very well. The machinery they put in motion
to get money was a dire necessity for the government,
whereas in our case it is not a necessity for the govern-
ment at all. The revenue our government w^ould derive
would be more incidental, in fact, entirely so. The ne-
cessity in our ca.se is for the individual to get money to
improve his farm and himself and family b> i ' '' g his
own for security for the money. 1B>\ ;ng he is con-

feiring a benefit on others as well ; aseJf.

The idea of mortgnging real estai o our own gtn-ern-
ment is not chimerical at all, nor is it a wild it scheme. It
is simply common .sense founded upon un eternal princi-
ple— the principle of loyalty to our own country. It isju.st
in an important sense the " redemj)tion " |)iice of the im-
proved land. In Germany at this day they have a .sys-
tem in operation, and have had for liow long I don't
know, on a large scale, just about half way between our
present .system of borrowing from outside the nation and
the plan the writer wishes Canada to adopt. I fancy it
is a good deal on the same principle as the British con-

Money and the Money Question iu Canada . CS

sols or national debt. The borrowings are all from eiti-
zens and not outsiders, and the interest derived all paid
to and enjoyed by citizenH, not the government, conse-
quently not lost to the country, as all onr interest is,
except what is borrowed from our own citizens, and that
is a comparatively small amount. I quote from the In-
surance and Finance Chronicle : " The m()rt<i:a*];e loan
companies of Canada are represented in Germany by
mutual credit associations ... on a nuitual cai)ital
basis. . . They issue bonds which are listed on the
exchanges. . . These bonds are not issued direct to in-
vestors like our loan company debentures are, but are
given to borrowers in payment for mortgages, who dis-
pose of them in the market for securities or otherwise.
. . . These bonds are not held outside Germany." The
Bankers* Magazine gives the total amount of mort<.ages
represented by this class of bonds as about $1,297,000,000,
which enormous sum has been obtained from the public
at an average rate of 3.f per cent., the loans . . . are
made from 30 to 50 yeais, payable in small installments,
a great contrast to the system prevailing in this country."
The rate of interest fluctuates very little in a long course
of years, a system vastly more favourable to the farm-
ers and infinitely ! otter for the country as a whole,
inasmuch as the interest, amounting to S48,637,o00, is
enjoyed by their own people. If our 550,000 improved
farms of 100 acres each were worth $4,000 = $2,200,-
000,000, and the farmers had borrowed our own money
from our own sovernment at the same rate of interest
up to (49 per cent., the German limit,) say 50 per cent,
for convenience, would be a revenue of 811,250,000, being

' I

I i

64 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

fully SI 0,000,000 more than all our revenue from tarifTs
and excise put togetbev, with absolutely free imports in
goods, and the farmers would have a vast amount of cap-
ital to carry on their business operations somewhat like as
they should be. I look upon the battle for free and
abundant goods as virtually won. A good workable plan
of direct taxation only needs to be plainly and calmly
laid before all the people for con-.ideration, and the op-
portunity given, say a plebiscite, to decide. Doubtless the
people would recommend and demand its adoption. And
tiie alacrity of adopting would very much, almost alto-
gether, depend upon its cardinal virtues of justice and
economy. Any system of indirect taxation is difficult
to elaborate and impossible of just application. Direct
taxation is amazingly simple and easy to elaborate, an«l
the only way possible to arrive at anything like justice.
As to economy, there are not two opinions about tliat.
neither is there as to efficiency ; that would soon follow.
The battle for free and abundant money is different ;
most of the ])eople seem totally indifferent or apathetic,
doubtless solely because they have given neither thought
nor consideration to the question. When this question
comes to be looked into intelligently by the many the
battle will not be so protracted as for free goods, for the
simple reason that mo.iey is simply the representative of
goods. The one gniat desideratum here is for the intel-
ligent leaders of all parties to unite as one, and consider
the question to the bottom vith the one end in view,
viz., to find the truth, and having found what they be-
lieve to bo the truth (as clear in having the money ques-
tion upon as secure, solid and common sense basis as we

1 J

. .

'. _>

Money and the Money Questiori in Canada. 65

now have for free goods — the essentials and conveni-
ences of life, just because it is so plain common sense.
Everyone has the common sense to practise, and should,
if they act for their welfare when they have the oppor-
tunit}'^, and, consequently, until the opportunity is given
they cannot practice what they should. Let us by all
means get to the common sense basis. Common sense is
good ethics. Sanctified common sense is the best ethics.
We are Christians, and should be sanctified ones, having
found the truth, manfully lay their views before the
whole people, take them into their confidence, stake
their reputation upon it and say, like noble Laurier,
" Here 1 am." If Canadians can see the principle to be
right, and if it be sound economics for government to
issue paper money and make it legal tender, a thing
which nobody disputes, then if the best security is given
that can be given, viz., farm real estate, which nobody
disputes but everybody believes, then the battle is virtu-
ally won.

Suppose Canada's trio, Mr. Laurier, Sir Richard Cart-
wright and Sir Oliver Mowat, last but not least, were to
formulate a plan of direct taxation, and believed as firm-
ly as Mr. Laurier, and they believed that the former has
taken the right stand, that the State is above the Church
in its own sphere of government, that the principle is
sound that the land owned and occupied by citizens,
that they — that is, the land and the citizens, should pay
the bulk, if not all, the Federal taxation by a land tax
and a poll tax for the protection, liberty and the rights
they enjoy as citizens of the Dominion, and also some-
thing for Empire protection and liberty and rights, and
S

fi6 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

that iimnicipal government .sliould bo paid for by each
municipality distinct from Federal taxation; suppoae
these three men formulated a system upon these beliefs,
and at the seme time arranged the borrowing system on
real estate so that the farmers of the Dominion had the
liberty and the right, if thoy chose to use it, to mortgage
theii improved farms and homes to their own govern-
ment at say 2 per cent, to 50 per cent, of their market
value, and for as long as they paid the stipulated inter-
est; what satisfied and convinced these three leading
men would satisfy and convince all men of any account,
not only in Canada but elsewhere. How long, or tedi-
ous, or how mucli acrimony would be shown in gaining
the battle ? Methinks a few months' kindly, courageous
discussion would soon preitare the way for the introduc-
tion of direct taxation, with its untold and untellable ad-
vantages.

The present bank monopoly of the right to issue notes
up to say $35,000,000, large though it be, will not be
difficult to overcome, provided the principle is light for
the Dominion Government to issue, as it now does to a
large extent, some $20,000,000 or $2.5.000,000 of notes.
The condition upon which permission is given to issue
the last $5,000,000 is that dollar for dollar of gold
must be held, and nobody questions the right or expe-
diency of the government doing this. Who would be
injured or have any right to complain ? Or what risk of
ruin would there be if Canadian farmers gave something
better than gold for security for Dominion notes, viz.,
gilt-edge farms, which are far more worth to the indi-
vidual and the nation than gilt-edge gold sovereigns —

)3e

[he

Lire

Irn-
ket
er-

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 67

say a 150 acre improved, productive farm, Avhich has
cost its owner in hard cash and honest Lard labour the
toil of many years, of struggles under difficulties of him-
self and family ; the birthplace of his sons and daugh-
ters, and the death-place, it may be, of a wife dear to
him beyond expression, or other loved ones; the place
which is the nursery for the family, the Church and the
State, and the stay of our Dominion and of the Empire
of which we form a ])art ; a farm which has cost prob-
ably ii^lO.OOO or Si 2,000, and which was saleable ten
years ago at $10,000, six years ago at 88,500, and to-day
perhaps only about $7,000 ?

Suppose the farmer wanted to borrow $3,000 upon it,
and mortgaged it to the government for that sum at 2
per cent., and got Dominion legal tender notes, as now.
The government would receive $60 yearl}' for revenue,
and tlie farmer $3,000 to do what he liked with it. If,
in i)lace of mortgaging to his own government, he mort-
gaged to an alien at 6 per cent., as we now do, the gov-
ernment would receive no revenue from it, the farmer
paying $180 in place of $00; so his minus $120 gets
$3,000 for five years, say, to be paid then or renewed, at
the option of the borrower. Over and above he has to
pay his share of Dominion indirect taxes of $30,000,000,
not only of this sum but his share of the $G0,000,C00 of
tariff, which does not go into revenue, and $10,000,000
for interest on national debt, in all $100,000,000. His
share for himself and family is $100, that is $220 more
than he would need to pay if we had direct taxation, as
the $60 would suffice for his share of Dominion revenue.
Now, these are facts and not fictions, and " facts are chiels
that winna ding."

68 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

1 !

If one farmer could borrow $3,000 in this way, why
could not all who could give the same security do so if
they wished ? And why should any be debarred the
privilege ? Suppose a township of 400 farmers ; half of
them wanted capital to start joint stock mutual com-
panies, all in the townshi})s or villages in it to purchase
shares if they chose, organized a company for each — say
a flour-mill, oatmeal -mill, woollen-mill, planing-mill and
sash- factory, implement-factory and foundry, dry-goods,
groceries and hardware store, a butchery and bakery, etc.
Suppose they mortgaged their farms for $2,500 each,
which would be $500,000 capital, for which they would
pay $50 each, or $10,000 in all, which would go to gov-
ernment for revenue, and Free Trade into boot, they could
carry on these various businesses on a strictly mutual co-
operative basis, so that there would be no inducement
for our ruinous competitive system in vogue at present,
and which seems unavoidable. All would have a direct
interest in things being well managed, whether the arti-
cles made and dealt in were cheap or dear. If everj-
township in t].? Dominion had this system of things in
operation, even co a comparatively small extent, what
would be the inducement for the country people to flock
to the cities to try and do better ; or what inducement for
any farmer to pull up his stakes and flee to Brother Jona-
than ? Methinks our sons and daughters would get mar-
ried and hive ofl' to Manitoba and the great Northwest, or
to Muskoka and Algoma's forests and mines, each accord-
ing to their tastes. The tendency of the age to congregate
in large cities is not a pleasing prospect for the future —
these man-made places. Some one, long ago, made the

/^'

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 69

remark, " Man made tlie cities, but God made the coun-
try," but could not understand how He had always placed
a river where the city was.

Free Trade within the Empire and taxing products
from all other countries, I assume Great Britain will not
agree to. Tlie necessity, founded upon right, for import-
ing freely cheap food and choa[)er raw material of all
kinds, and paying for them by exporting her manufac-
tures, is so manifestly her true policy that we may set it
down as a foregone conclusion that Britain will not give
her consent, and that it is only wasting our time to in-
dulge in long discussions over the matter. The abolition
of the Corn Laws in Britain fifty years ago, and of im-
port duties in general since, and the consequent channels
in which the nation's commerce now flows, will not be
allowed to be disturbed without a most manifest advan-
tage to their commence and well-being. We may as well
face the inevitable, viz., Direct Taxation, at once, and act
wisely, and try all likely means to find out a reasonably
good, workable plan, and inaugurate free imports from
every quarter. We don't need to buy what will be un-
profitable to the individual who buys the articles import-
ed. Of course, it is not fair nor equal that we should
allow U.S goods to come in free while they tax our goods
going to them; but the unfair part of it is not ours, but
theirs alone, for which they are responsible ; but, as a
matter of fact, it injures their own people more than us.
For this reason we can have cheap imports from Britain,
which they cannot have as long as they tax them. Tho
goods they do not buy from us we can send to Free Trade
Britain and elsewhere. We cannot compel them to buy

Vi I

70 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

from us, either with or without tariffs. They will only
buy what suits theui at any time. The cheaper we have
our ^oocls the more anxious will the U.S. people be to
buy from us. Their taxinj^ our goods is simply wrong,
or, in plain English, a sin, ant I we may be sure their sin
will find them out, as well as other folks' .sins find thera
out.

There is one way, and only one way, 1 know of where-
by Britain could justly discriminate to our great advan-
tage, and in favour of the outlying Empire, and against
all outsiilers, and still pay for Lei' imported goods by her
exported goods. Britain has loaned a vast amount of
money to many nations on the i,fold standard basis. Let
her simply do this and no wrong would be done, because
8he has loaned and the borrowers bonovved on the sold
basis; make all outside the Empire pay their interest in
gold, .and don't demand the principal, by any means, as
long as they retain gold as the standard of money, and
as long as the interest is punctually paid, and allow all
within the Empire to pay their debts, both interest and
principal, with good.s, as they do now. The direct result
would be an enormous inliux of gold to Britain and out-
How from foreign countries. We Canadians would get
an enormous advantage. We would purchase U. S. pro-
duce in Buffalo, Chicago and Milwaukee, etc., and pay for
thera with our products and British gold, which would
be badly wanted by the U. S. to pay their interest. We
would .ship their produce along our railways to the sea-
board, and have all the advantages of cheap freight both
ways, both on sea and lan<l. If Britain, like a wise, in-
dulgent, or, rather, considerate mother, who had a special

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 71

favour to her eldest ilaugliter, would give her this advan-
tage, it would be a good dowry. And if the beautiful
daughter acted wisely and considerately to the nioiher
and herself, by letting her goods in free she would pros-
pQV and grow rich ; Brother Jonathan would be voiy
apt to repent, like a good prodigal son, before he got a
generation older, and would watit to marry commercially
the virtuous, wealthy, thriving, queenly daughter, with
the consent of the good old mother of both, which mar-
riage would be tlie Ibreiunner of the Imperial Federation
of the Anglo-Saxon race.

Just imagine calmly, for a moment, what might follow
this one change. Canada would have free imporfs, free
raw material for her various manufactories as well as for
her farmers, for we are all manufacturers of some kind ;
cheap goods, cheap living, cheap implnnents, cheap
machinery, and cheap money if we liked to develop our
industries, our farms, our forests, our mines, our fishi-ries,
etc. The demand for our products would be something
undreamt of. Our Northwest would begin to fill up, and
the old parts of (Janada would be juore productive and
become more po[)ulous. Now, brother Canadians, what
can be done to bring aV)out a remedy for our country's
ills ? Canadians only can do it, and they can do i\ but
how, is the i ub.

It is said the darkest hour is just before daybreak. 1
believe it is so in reijard to Canada at this moment.
Just imagine the Apostle Paul pas.sing through ( Canada
and visiting Ottawa in place of Athens, when he pro-
nounced the city wholly given to idolatry, and what he
might have said of Canada as represented by the lecent

72 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

government. He tells in speaking to the Romans that
scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perad ven-
ture for a good man some would even dare to die. He
would have found a man whom the Queen of Britain had
honoured with a title, and Canada honoured with a high
office and emoluments, and made him leader in the peo-
ple's Houne of Commons, ready to die neither for a
righteous nor a ; -rod man, but for a bad Remedial Bill ; so
bad that if passed it could not be put into operation, and
if it was, would result in the ignorance and bigotry of
many wlio would otherwise be good, intelligent, enlight-
ened, and free citizens. The outlook was dark, indeed,
more especially when such a body of men who have
been, for many long years fighting the wild beasts of
Ephesus, moral heroes, such a band of noble-minded men
seeking not their own, but their country's good, making
no headway in remedying matters, proclaiming that the
only remedy they propose for our national ills during a
long lifetime is a revenue tariflf'as opposed to a protective
one, when they know, or must know, that with the heavy
load of accumulated debt and liabilities any tariff which
will not be burdensome must be supplemented by direct
taxes in some shape, and that a revenue tarifl', as it is
called, must in the nature of things be expensive and un-
just in its operation, the tendency of tariffs is to propa-
gate and add to injustice.

Is there a country in the world presents such a spec-
tacle, in many respects, in regard to the two great parties
who try to govern ? On the one hand the Conservative
party, especially the leaders, half of them pronounced
traitors ; the great majority moral imbeciles, their chief

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 73

aim apparently to hold on to office in order to en-
rich them and their friends, and to pile up debt for
the Dominion, having held office for 28 of 28 years
since Confederation. On the other, the Reform party,
especially the leaders, Jiuch a galaxy of men of unsullied
moral rectitude, men of great ability and experience so
long in opposition — to what ! A government the least
said about it the better. The only things that held it to-
gether were money and diabolical gerrymander and fran-
chise laws.

Reformers and all good men, of whatever party, must
by this time have leaiTied a lesson, how closely connected
morality is with good government, and especially the
awful danger of not meteing out justice to rulers when
found guilty of bribery and deception. If the Reformers
in 1873 had probed the Pacific scandal as they ought,
and made a public example of the wrongdoers by, at
least, disqualifying for life those found redhanded in the
bribery plot of 1872, our national policy, and its atten-
dant train of evils, would have had no existence.

Doubtless, an overruling Providence has had some good
to bring out of our evil doings by bringing Canada to
her hunkers and to her knees, and acknowledge God
more in her national affairs by bringing her to see the
vileness of her ways, and change her evil systems which
have caused so much oppression, and turn to the paths of
righteous government. The opportunity is at hand, the
flood is about high tide. " There is a tide in the affairs
of men, it' taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." Was
ever a time so opportune, and the need so great, to make
a radical change in our national affairs in taxation mat-

3::3r

m \

74 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

ters, and in public morality in high places ? There is no
use in shutting our eyes to the fact that direct taxation
in the Dominion sphere of government is the only
remedy, humanly speaking, the one thing needful to re-
dress? our greatest wrongs, not only in Manitoba but
throughout the Dominion. We want and must have a
remedial bill of the right sort. It is ten thousand times
more needful than the much-talked-about School Reme-
dial Bill.

Our rulers, past and present, havo a general but very
inailequate im})ression of the real state of matters in
the countiy parts. They lack th-' miimte knowledge
of the individual difficulties whicli liave caused the
general impression. Doubtless many of them have their
own money difficulties to contend with; but theirs do
not prevent them getting a new suit of clothes and pay-
ing for them when they need them. Not so with many
farmers and those dependent upon their success. Hun-
dre<ls of thousands of them have much difficulty to pay
fur a new suit when they need it, and also for food they
lequire to buy alter paying all unavoidable expenses in
conducting tlieir various occupations, their debts crush-
ing them all the time, many of them ashamed to tell
their debts, and who would have none but for our pub-
lic violation of God's moral laws, to wit, protection, as it
is called, and too high interest on money employed in
agriculture, the mainstay of the country.

If at their earliest convenience the members of the
new government, personally or by commission, would take
a little time down amongst us farmers and villagers,
and enquire into our circumstances with the view of

Money and the Money Qtiestion in Uamali. 75

finding out the real ^tate of matters and a remedy, their
visits would be liailed with rejoicing, and int'oiinatiun
would be given freely, both with open and closed doors,
as occasion rendered prudetit. Whatever tliiil:rcncei of
opinion there may be as to grievances in Manitoba about
school matters, tln^y would lind there were real griev-
ances in every jirovince, townsliip, and village in the
Dominion on tra<le matters M'hich are brinffinix us all to
the level of slaves in place of freemen, as we onglit and
might be. Let thet)i take note-book in hand and jot
down facts ; tliev will lind them bv the thousand on
every side. Their greatest ditticuity would be to keep
the facts within compass. They would require to visit dis-
tricts both where mixed farming was the rule and wheie
specialities were n)ore i)rominent. J am as convinced as
can be that such a visitation of inquiry is absolutely
necessary in order to get eonect and relial>le information
of the real cause of the hard times and a great help to
find the effective remedy, and, in fact, the only way in
order to be able to fi*auio a Komedial Bill such as is
needed, I venture tlie opinion that they would get
such an array of facts as would lead them to see that to
frame any scale of tariffs at all approaching a suita'-l**
remedy for Canada's ills would be an utter impossibility,
and that there was no remedy at all to compare with
absolute Free Trade, whicli involves Direct Taxation. 1
also venture the opinion that they would find that the
only classes of farmers who were even holding their own,
as the saying is, or doing anything at all well these many
years back, were those who had been making cheese a
speciality, and those few parsimonious, haid-fisted ones

76 Money and the Money Question in Canada.

who would rather cut oft' their right hand than mortgage
their farms to anybody, and who spend not one cent for
the country's welfare unless compelled by the municipal
tax-gatherer, and who believe there is no Dominion
tax-gatherer, because they never see nor hear, of hira,
and who give less thun a copper coin, it may be, for
homo and foreign ujissions if they happen to belong to
a church.

All who can grasp tlie situation of Canada for many
years back, and who are not pessimists, must begin to
see the workings of Providence in our national aflkirs.
In 1872 flagrant bribery in high places left unpunished ;
in 1878 Honesty dethroned as a consequence, and the
old Bribery regime reinstated and exalted to positions of
honour and trust ; the bribery of 1872 practically con-
doned. Bribery increased to a degree undreamt of even
in 1880, and continued ever since, and now reigns su-
preme, and it seems well-nigh impossible to lay the mon-
ster quiet again. Ho stalks through the country deceiv-
ing the people and trampling the people's representatives
as if they had no rights but to submit to every indignity
and insult, the best men of the country denounced as ob-
structionists when trying to rule for the best welfare of
the country, and every citizen in particular.

Why did Edward Blake leave his country's politics in
disgust when he was so much needed at home, where he
was and is loved and looked up to, and is yet ; and why
was the great Liberal party, the honest, progressive party,
defeated time and again in 1878, 1882, 1887, and 1891 ?
We may well ask ourselves these and kindred questions.
Doubtless, all these and much more evil has been per-

Money and the Money Question in Canada. 77

mitted by au all-wise Providence, that a greater good may
result. What greater good, humanly speaking, could any
sensible Canadian conceive of than that absolute Free
Trade should prevail within our borders of all things
good and necessary for life and comfort, and restricted
trade or, more correctly speaking, Prohil>ition in things
not necessary for daily use, either for life or comfort. In
order to have these there is no other right way than first
of all to fiame a definite system for each, very carefully
drawn up, and lay them before the people either to be
adopted or rejected. To have free goods means clieap
goods, and in abundance, and the best means to im-
prove the quality at the same time. To have free money
means cheap money, and in abundance, and the best
means to improve the quality at the same time. There
can be no doubt of these facts, which I believe them to
be after having given them my best thoughts.

Having now placed my views on paper on Money and
the Money Question in Canada, ver}'^ imperfectly it may
be, I am most anxious to have them laid before my fel-
low-countrymen of all classes for their best consideration.
Asa farmer of the Dominion, all I ask of the Dominion
Government is protection to my person and property,
with liberty to labour, buy and sell freely whatever is
generally believed to be needful and good for life and
comfort, for things not needful for life and comfort'
liberty to get them only in the drug-stores under medi-
cal surveillance, and liberty to borrow capital on my im-
proved farm to half its market value, from my own
government in place of from aliens, and I will pay all
Dominion taxes, and an Imperial tax as well, direct

■l.'JL'-fiJ'-J-'^"-^-"'**'*'*""

78 Movey and the Money Quedion in Canada.

without any expense or cucumlocution, either to my
township treasurer or to heatl(|uarter.s, as seemetli best
to the powers that be. These things, I venture to say,
are reasonable and risfht, and what every honest farnjer
in the jionjinion wouhl say he wants and would under-
take to do it' asked the questions, and that every honest
man 'Uid woman in the Dominion will admit to be
iTiisonahle and light, and tlmt such things ought to pre-
vail. Eveiybody wants pcjsonal protection, cheap goods,
and clieap money when in want of them. Wh}'^ ? Be-
cause they are necdtul for life and comfort. Why, then,
in the name '>f wonder, should they not V)e free among a
free people ? We liavc free Bibles, and pride ourselves
we hfive fr(M> chuiches an<l free schools; why, then, in the
nauM) of justice and humanity, cannot we havt free
trade in the i ccessaries and ^iMiveniences of life ? With-
out, the latter neither of the former three can have free
scope or a fair chance to show what they can do for a
needy people and a needy worhl. Wliat Canada needs,
and the world needs, is freedom in good things, cou])led
with wise and prndent pi'oliibition of injurious things.
In tliese times, at the close of the nineteenth century, a
rare opportunity is affoi'ded C;»,iuida to make thcbe two
radical clianges. Are we Oanudians equal to the occa-
sion and lit for self-government ? Time will tell.

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